Nightmare Edition:Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News MONDAY, 9/19/05

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“What is finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it.
It's the individual that's finished.
It's the single, solitary human being that's finished.
It's every single one of you out there that's finished.
Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some two-hundred-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods.
Well, the time has come to say, "Is 'de-humanization' such a bad word?" Because good or bad, that's what is so.
The whole world is becoming humanoid -- creatures that look human, but aren't. The whole world, not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first.
The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things....” Howard Beale Declaims the Death of Democracy in NETWORK

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News MONDAY, 9/19/05

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.ph...

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.ph...



All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_20...

Please

"Recommend"

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

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1. CARTER-BAKER COMMISSION—We’re TOTALLY Screwed

Let me begin today’s news update by saying, “We’re so screwed, not just a little but lot.” The Carter Baker Commission on Federal Elections Reform just issued its report today. Pending a final review of all the recommendations, the apocalyptic quotient of the report and it’s betrayal of democracy is hard to tell. However, take a look at each article and you’ll get a flavor. Oh, did I mention that the driving force behind the Commission, Prof Robert A. Pastor of American University, SIGNED the famous 1998 letter to President Clinton urging military action against Iraq because of WMD (I’m not making this up, see the post on Pastor). Who could write this other than Terry Southern, screen writer for DR. STRANGELOVE!

Carter-Baker Panel to Call for Voting Fixes
Election Report Urges Photo IDs, Paper Trails And Impartial Oversight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 19, 2005; A03

Warning that public confidence in the nation's election system is flagging, a commission headed by former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James A. Baker III today will call for significant changes in how Americans vote, including photo IDs for all voters, verifiable paper trails for electronic voting machines and impartial administration of elections.

The report concludes that, despite changes required under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, far more must be done to restore integrity to an election system that suffers from sloppy management, treats voters differently not only from state to state but also within states, and that too often frustrates rather than encourages voters' efforts to participate in what is considered a basic American right.

<snip>.

Many complaints came in Ohio, where President Bush narrowly defeated Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to secure his reelection victory. Although there has been no credible evidence of partisan manipulation of the election in Ohio, the criticisms there and elsewhere have renewed calls for a more uniform, trustworthy and nonpartisan election system across the country.

<snip>

The most controversial recommendation calls for all voters to produce a standard photo identification card before being allowed to vote. The commission proposes that, by 2010, voters be required to use either the Real ID card, which Congress this spring mandated as the driver's license of the future in all states. For about 12 percent of eligible voters who do not have a driver's license, the commission says states should provide at no cost an identification card that contains the same key information.

<snip>

Still, the proposed ID card drew sharp dissent from some commissioners, among them former Senate Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). In a dissent joined by two other commissioners, Daschle likened the ID to a "modern day poll tax."

<snip>

The 2002 act required the use of provisional ballots for any eligible voter who shows up at a polling place but whose name is not on a registration list, but the 2004 election produced disparate standards for determining which of those ballots were counted. Alaska counted 97 percent of its provisional ballots, but Delaware counted 6 percent, according to the commission. The group recommends that states set uniform standards.

Approximately 9 million Americans move from one state to another in any given year
.
<snip>.

The Florida recount in 2000 etched the image of the "hanging chad" in the minds of many Americans and spurred the shift to electronic, rather than paper, ballots. But flaws in these new computerized systems have led to doubts about their accuracy. The commission calls on Congress to require that all electronic machines include the capacity for a paper trail that voters can use to verify their vote. Beyond that, to alleviate concerns that machines can be maliciously programmed or hacked, the commission calls for new standards to verify that machines are secure.

Another change designed to restore confidence in elections calls for moving to nonpartisan and independent administration of elections, in the states and on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The integrity of the Ohio system was challenged in part because the chief election official, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, also served as the Ohio co-chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

<snip>

The Commission on Federal Election Reform was created under the auspices of American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management. The group was funded by several foundations, and Robert A. Pastor of American University served as executive director. Its membership included Republicans, Democrats and independents.

CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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2. OHIO Activists Fire Back

Fitrakis, Wasserman, and Ohio citizen activists FIRE BACK!

How The GOP Stole Election 2004 & Is Rigging 2008
The "Woodward & Bernstein of the 2004 Election" - in a Special Investigative Report Revealing Massive Voter Theft, Fraud and Illegalities in Ohio's Presidential Balloting

Press Release: freepress.org
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0509/S00310.htm

Monday, 19 September 2005, 2:07 pm
Press Release: freepress.org

COLUMBUS, OH -- HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008 by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, praised by Rev. Jesse Jackson as the "Woodward & Bernstein of the 2004 Election," will be released September 19.

The theft of the 2004 election has been catalogued, footnoted and thoroughly documented in more than 180 bullet points compiled by the Ohio-based investigative reporters in their shocking new compendium. The special digest may serve as the touchstone for all future coverage of the 2004 campaign and vote count in the lead-up to 2008.

The 9/19 release date coincides with the report to be issued by a special commission led by Jimmy Carter and James Baker investigating widespread fraud and vote theft in Ohio and elsewhere in the 2004 election.

Fitrakis and Wasserman are based in Columbus. They are publisher and senior editor of www.Freepress.org, which broke the key stories exposing massive vote fraud, theft, intimidation and illegalities in the conduct of the 2004 election in Ohio that gave the presidency to George W. Bush for a second time.

Beginning nearly a year before the election, Fitrakis and Wasserman issued many breaking stories on the Freepress.org web site, sole reporting on the intimidation and fraud administered by J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, who also served as co-chair of the state's Bush-Cheney campaign. Fitrakis moderated hearings that took testimony from scores of Ohio voters who were disenfranchised in an extremely close statewide vote count that gave Bush a second term.

In their 767-page DID GEORGE W. BUSH STEAL AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION: ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS, Fitrakis and Wasserman, with Steve Rosenfeld, compiled the core papers showing how the GOP hijacked their victory in Ohio. This reporting served as the basis for the commission convened by Congressman John Conyers, leading to his influential preliminary report on "Jim Crow" abuses in Ohio 2004. Available via http://www.freepress.org/store.php .

In HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, their new digest, Fitrakis and Wasserman summarize more than 180 key points ranging from rigged and maldistributed voting machines to intimidation and trashed ballots to fraudulent vote counts and a fake Homeland Security alert, concluding with exposure of how the GOP may already have the 2008 vote count locked up. No concerned American can avoid the conclusions or consequences revealed in this shocking digest available now at http://www.freepress.org/store.php or http://www.harveywasserman.com .

ENDS

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3. C-B Commission Coverage is Light—AP Except PentaPost (Washington Post)

C-B Commission Coverage is Light—AP Except PentaPost (Washington Post)
Here’s how it’s reported further from the beltway. I didn’t bother showing the NYT coverage, at least as of now, because it was just a longer AP release. AP doesn’t mention that it has the original data from the National Exit Polls but refuses to release them for public review, choosing just a select few to see this vital document. In fact, they even turned down a request from Rep. Conyers on this.

Commission calls for voting changes

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/19/Worldandnation/Commis...

Commission calls for voting changes
By Associated Press
Published September 19, 2005

WASHINGTON - Electronic voting machines should leave a paper trail of ballots cast and the government should provide free photo IDs to nondrivers to help check voting eligibility, a commission on election reform recommends.

The bipartisan private commission, created to suggest ways to improve the electoral process, also favors four regional primaries to be held after the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Also, states should develop registration systems that allow easy checks of voters from one state to another, according to the report - to be presented to President Bush and congressional leaders today - by the panel led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

--Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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4. BradBlog is on the Story

Brad will be on top of this all week. Listen!

BRAD SHOW Saturday Night (Sunday Afternoon)

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001840.htm

Blogged by Brad on 9/17/2005 @ 2:47pm PT...
REBRADCAST: Our '40th Anniversary Voting Rights Act' Special Edition!
Listening Links via www.BradShow.com - 7p-11p ET Saturday, 12p-4p ET Sunday!

If you missed it the first time, it's new to you! Be sure to catch our jam packed Special Edition of The BRAD SHOW celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the...
If you missed it the first time, it's new to you! Be sure to catch our jam packed Special Edition of The BRAD SHOW celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Originally aired on Aug. 6th, the show features an amazing array of folks both live and on tape! Here's a few of them, but see www.BradShow.com for more details!

Rep. JOHN LEWIS (D-GA) • Rev. JESSE JACKSON • SAM WALKER • Rep. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D-GA) • Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING • LEON SMITH • KEENAN KELLER • Rev. BILL MOSS

Interestingly, the day we originally broadcast this show, a woman named Cindy Sheehan had showed up in Crawford, Texas, outside Bush's vacation home to request a meeting with him. We spoke that night with Leon Smith, editor of the Lonestar Iconocast in Crawford, about what became quite a national event!

This program is also particularly timely as the Baker/Carter Commission on Election Reform, the one that was created in part with the help of the cretins/GOP-operatives who call themselves the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR), is to release their findings on Monday. Our early word is that they will making their recommendations to ensure disenfranchisement of millions of American through the requirement of Photo ID at the polls (which millions of Elderly, Urban Dwellers and Minorities simply don't own). So this show is a good reminder of what was won 40 years ago in the name of government of the people, by the people and for the people...and what may well be lost at the hands of America and Democracy Hating folks like James A. Baker who continues to do George W. Bush's bidding...or vice versa.

Perhaps Americans and Democrats will soon wake up before it's too late. Though we're not particular optimistic about that today. Either way...Enjoy the show! It was a great one!
Bottom of Form

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5. The People Who Brought Us WMD Run the Carter-Baker Commission on Elections

Read it and weep. The man behind “fixing” American elections, Prof. Robert A. Pastor, signed on to this famous letter. I’m cure President Clinton took a look and filed it under “C” for “crazy ideas.” This guy is part of the crew who brought is Iraq’s WMD’s

Just who is Robert Pastor, the American University Academic Behind the Carter Baker Commission? Well, He’s Part of the Crew that Brought Us WMD and the Iraq War. “Fixing” US Elections Must Be His Promotion

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=152184...

Robert A. Pastor actively participated in the following events:
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?sectio...

Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf

Open Letter to the President

19 February 1998

Dear Mr. President,

Many of us were involved in organizing the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf in 1990 to support President Bush's policy of expelling Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Seven years later, Saddam Hussein is still in power in Baghdad. And despite his defeat in the Gulf War, continuing sanctions, and the determined effort of UN inspectors to fetter out and destroy his weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein has been able to develop biological and chemical munitions. To underscore the threat posed by these deadly devices, the Secretaries of State and Defense have said that these weapons could be used against our own people. And you have said that this issue is about "the challenges of the 21st Century."

Iraq's position is unacceptable. While Iraq is not unique in possessing these weapons, it is the only country which has used them -- not just against its enemies, but its own people as well. We must assume that Saddam is prepared to use them again. This poses a danger to our friends, our allies, and to our nation.

It is clear that this danger cannot be eliminated as long as our objective is simply "containment," and the means of achieving it are limited to sanctions and exhortations. As the crisis of recent weeks has demonstrated, these static policies are bound to erode, opening the way to Saddam's eventual return to a position of power and influence in the region. Only a determined program to change the regim

The Committee for Peace and Security publishes an open letter to President Bill Clinton outlining a 9-point “comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime.” The letter is signed by a litany of former US government officials known for their neoconservative viewpoints. Several of the signatories are also involved with the Project for the New American Century and had endorsed a similar letter published by that organization the previous month.
People and organizations involved: William B. Clark, Richard Burt, Stephen Bryen, Jeffrey T. Bergner, Paula J. Dobriansky, Richard V. Allen, Richard Armitage, Stephen Solarz, Frank Gaffney, Robert C. McFarlane, Jarvis Lynch, Frederick L. Lewis, Bernard Lewis, Sven F. Kraemer, Jeffrey Gedmin, Fred C. Ikle, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, John R. Bolton, Gary Schmitt, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dov S. Zakheim, David Wurmser, Joshua Muravchik, William Kristol, Douglas Feith, Robert Kagan, Elliott Abrams, Michael Ledeen, Robert A. Pastor, Frank Carlucci, Roger Robinson, Martin Peretz, Max Singer, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, Caspar Weinberger, Leon Wienseltier, Peter Rosenblatt, Peter Rodman

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ldt.html

Lou Dobbs Tonight Appearance

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT - On Capitol Hill, testimony calling for Americans to start thinking like citizens of North America and treat the U.S., Mexico and Canada like one big country.

ROBERT PASTOR, INDEPENDENT TASK FORCE ON NORTH AMERICA created by the Council on Foreign Relations: The best way to secure the United States today is not at our two borders with Mexico and Canada, but at the borders of North America as a whole.

ROMANS: That's the view in a report called "Building a North American Community." It envisions a common border around the U.S., Mexico and Canada in just five years, a border pass for residents of the three countries, and a freer flow of goods and people. Task force member Robert Pastor:

PASTOR: What we hope to accomplish by 2010 is a common external tariff which will mean that goods can move easily across the border. We want a common security perimeter around all of North America, so as to ease the travel of people within North America.

ROMANS: Buried in 49 pages of recommendations from the task force, the brief mention, "We must maintain respect for each other's sovereignty." But security experts say folding Mexico and Canada into the U.S. is a grave breach of that sovereignty.

FRANK GAFFNEY, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: That's what would happen if anybody serious were to embrace this strategy for homogenizing the United States and its sovereignty with the very different systems existing today in Canada and Mexico.

ROMANS: Especially considering Mexico's problems with drug trafficking, human smuggling and poverty. Critics say the country is just too far behind the U.S. and Canada to be included in a so-called common community. But the task force wants military and law enforcement cooperation between all three countries. . .

ROMANS: The idea here is to make North America more like the European Union. Yet, just this week, voters in two major countries in the European Union voted against upgrading -- updating the European constitution. So clearly, this is not the best week to be trying to sell that idea.

LOU DOBBS: Americans must think that our political and academic elites have gone utterly mad at a time when three-and-a-half years, approaching four years after September 11, we still don't have border security. And this group of elites is talking about not defending our borders, finally, but rather creating new ones. It's astonishing.

ROMANS: The theory here is that we are stronger together, three countries in one, rather than alone.

DOBBS: Well, it's a -- it's a mind-boggling concept. Christine Romans, thank you, as always.

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6. Commission Federal Elections Reform Web Site

Commission Federal Elections Reform Web Site
This site describes the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Elections Reforms

COMMISSION ON FEDERAL ELECTION REFORM

http://www.american.edu/ia/cfer /


American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management is honored to organize the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III. The Commission of twenty-one members consists of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. During the next six months, the group will examine the state of the electoral process in the United States and offer recommendations on improving it.

List of reports by the Commission:
August 10, 2005
Report: Precinct Voting 'Historic Relic'
Don Harris, Arizona Capitol Times
June 30, 2005
Panel: Congress may sit on vote reform
Kristen Mack, Houston Chronicle
June 30, 2005
Panel hears problems tied to U.S voting
Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2005
Election reform commission to hold final hearing
Wendy Benjaminson, Associated Press Writer
June 24, 2005 Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform to Hold Hearing June 30 at Rice University in Houston, Texas
Media Advisory, American University June 20, 2005 Munro Has Seat on High-Profile Election Panel
Gannett News Service June 3, 2005 Democrats Seek Election Holiday
Detroit Free Press
May 4, 2005
Commission Weighs Reforms for National's Electoral System
Staten Island Advance
April 29, 2005
Carter, Baker Pair Up on New Election Panel
Houston Chronicle
April 19, 2005
Connie Doebele interviews Commission Executive Director Robert Pastor on the Washington Journal on C-SPAN. (In RealOne Player format.)
April 19, 2005
Watch C-SPAN's live coverage of the April 18th hearings. In RealOne Player format.)
April 19, 2005
Election Reformers Bemoan Inadequacies
Fox News
April 19, 2005
Panel on Election Issues Hears of Money Problems
NPR
April 19, 2005
Behind the Scenes of Voter Election Reform
Fox News
April 19, 2005
Vote Reform Ideas Include a Holiday for Election Day
Associated Press
April 19, 2005
Defects In 2004 Balloting Described: Panel Hears Pleas For Improvements
Brian Faler, The Washington Post
April 19, 2005
Commission Examines Problems at Presidential Polls
Pam Fessler, NPR
April 19, 2005
Carter-Baker Commission Weighs More Changes to U.S. Elections
Laurence Arnold/Ken Fireman, Bloomberg
April 19, 2005

Carter, Baker: Parties Seek Vote Integrity
Will Lester, Associated Press
April 19,2005
Funding a top election-reform issue
Laurence Arnold, Detroit Free Press
March 28, 2005
Editorial: Flunking the Carter standard
The Baltimore Sun
March 26, 2005
Editorial: Election reform/Carter, Baker tackle it
The Star Tribune
March 25, 2005
Carter to Head Elections Panel: Bipartisan Group Will Look for Ways to Improve Voting in U.S.
Washington Post/Reuters
March 24, 2005
Jimmy Carter to Chair Election Reform Commission
The Boston Globe/Reuters
March 24, 2005
Former President Jimmy Carter, Former Secretary of State James Baker To Convene New Commission on Federal Election Reform--First Meeting at American University, April 18
Press Release, American University
CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

[Stevepol]

7. There's some hope I think. We are making progress.

Look where we were a year or so ago, still trying to even get the concept of a paper trail out there.

Now of course we know a paper ballot print-out is necessary and REQUIRED AUDITS FOR ALL ELECTIONS USING THE DREs, that is, if we have to put up with the machines, which I guess we do. The best solution would be a paper ballot alone.

But we knew from the beginning the Carter-Baker commission would whitewash everything, so that was to be expected. But remember we've been having the other cross-town commissions all along running in parallel with the sham ones and more and more interest and activity is going on.

I don't think we're totally screwed at all. It's a very big country and because of the MSM it's just necessary to be the media and get it across thru the internet and by word of mouth.

We're getting there. This is just one more step. More books are coming, more activity is brewing.

[OneBlueSky]

8. besides photo IDs, what are the most problemmatic aspects . . .

of this report? . . . doesn't the call for independent administration of elections take it out of the hands of the voting machine companies? . . .

[Stevepol]

9. Exactly, independent administration of elections is a big step.

It's the vulnerability of the present system to bribery that led to our current pass I think. The last election was bought and paid for well before 2004 by hundreds of secret transactions between the voting machine vendors and the SOS offices around the country and among Democratic secretaries of state and elections officials as well as Republican. Money knows no party boundaries or loyalties.

And the insistence on the need for a paper trail is at least a positive step. Paper obviously has to happen before audits can be done.

No need for doom and gloom.

[DemReadingDU]

10. Independent administration is a great idea

With the country in a shambles due to Republican adminsitrations, many people seem to be leaning towards voting Democrat or Independent in 2006. But unless our voting system is changed before then, Republicans will win again.

[Peace Patriot]

11. The bad things will be implemented and the good things will be...

ignored. I am neither made more optimistic, nor less, by this report. It's about what I expected from this phony, private "commission"--with James Baker as cochair, packed with electronic voting advocates and politicos, headed by a neocon Iraq warmonger, and holding a few, poorly publicized, so-called "hearings."

Bush's "pod people" in Congress couldn't even be gotten to pass a meager "paper trail." What do you think they are going to do with non-partisan administration of elections? I can just see these jerkface mass murderers and thieves going on about THAT! (Not.)

I fear the worst--federalization of elections. But the voter ID thing will probably end our democracy. They will centralize voter data and start purging Democrats, big time--with no recourse. (--like when you get on a no-fly list; or go to the precinct you've voted in for 30 years and they can't find your name...).

Bad, bad, but not unexpected. If we ever get SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code and paperless voting thrown into 'Boston Harbor,' they'll get us with the voter purges. (Same thing they're doing with the Sup Ct--if they install a War Democrat with some populist leanings, a la FDR, to calm things down, they'll hamstring him/her in the Sup Ct--even with half the country unemployed and starving, as then.)

By the way, I PRESUME they did not call for a ban on Bushite corporations counting all our votes with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, did they?

I think I'll faint if they did. But, did they?

[In Truth We Trust]

12. Paper ballots NOW!!! Hand counts NOW!!! Impeachment NOW!!! nt

[Peace Patriot]

13. See my post at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

I didn't exactly say "we're totally screwed" (in so many words), but I didn't feel like mincing words either.

I think we should do some fundraising here for USCountVotes, and get ready for some major knockdown dragouts at the polls in '06.

I think the preponderance of the evidence is that we are totally screwed. But can we prove that in a court law? Where's the "smoking gun"? Aha! Aha! The "smoking gun" you say? I think maybe it arose like Excalibur from the new lake in New Orleans.

Why should WE be required to produce a "smoking gun," with Bushites owning and controlling the vote count with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code? I mean, isn't that, by its nature...um...fraudulent?

And the fraud becomes CLEARER every day, to my mind. It is floating with the dead bloated bodies of the poor in Louisiana. It is like a banker's mark on every dollar that is looted from this disaster by the criminals in the White House.

I had a conversation yesterday with an intelligent, informed person, to whom I was explaining about the secret, proprietary source code, and she said the following, "But the Democrats wouldn't let that happen. Maybe they know something you don't know." Her brain actually dissolved into koolaid as I watched. A sight to see.

I do love this country like my own soul, and I know that the great majority of people in it are progressive in their views, good-hearted, tolerant, love justice and fairness, and are peace-minded. I have a zillion stats I could cite to support it, but I also know it in my heart. So I will never give up on them, or on our great dream of democracy. Never!

But I am very angry today--and feeling something like despair--about the Democratic Party leadership and its complicity in keeping the Bush Cartel in power. Their silence on secret, Bushite-controlled vote tabulation--a fraudulent election waiting to happen--was and is unforgivable.

I know we are likely going to be forced to swallow a War Democrat in '08. I think it may be part of the Cartel plan to install Jeb in '12 and finish off our democracy once and for all. And I know that will be our one opportunity to get transparent elections, and we MUST work with it. A War Democrat (who will likely initiate a military Draft, something Bush cannot do). A multi-millionaire Democrat. A global corporate predator Democrat. Who might just have to pay lip service to some progressive values, like transparent elections.

But my insides are curdling at it today. I am so sick of them!

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14. Voting Rights Coalition "Vehemently" Disagrees with Carter-Baker

************ PRESS RELEASE *************************************
(This is a who's who of the voting rights movement)
ACTION STEPS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MESSAGE


Citizens Disagree Vehemently With the Findings of the Baker-Carter Commission Final Election Report



Count Paper Ballots a nationwide nonpartisan citizen election reform group focused on fair and transparent elections finds report’s conclusions are dangerous for democracy and guarantees a status quo of fraudulent, corporate controlled elections.


With all due respect to Dr. Robert Pastor, Former President Jimmy Carter and Mr. James Baker and the members of the Election Commision, the citizens vehemently disagree with the findings of the Baker-Carter Commission Final Election Report. Speaking on behalf of Count Paper Ballots, a Georgia based citizen election reform group, executive director Phyllis Huster says “this report is dangerous for democracy because it encourages using even more technology for the counting of our votes when the clear citizen cry is no more electronic voting. Worse the report encourages the status quo of privatized, corporate controlled elections when we advocate returning elections back to the citizens where they belong. Without fixing the problem of HAVA giving $3.6 billion in taxpayer monies to 2 companies ES&S and Diebold who control 80% of the voting machine market we will never fix elections with the bandaids proposed in this report. It’s time to walk away from HAVA. Diebold & ES&S have documented GOP ownership increasing the risk that one man, in this case Chuck Hagel because of his interest in the McCarthy Group which has interests in both Diebold and ES&S will control who wins the next election.” This existing problem is totally unacceptable to the citizens of the US and the Baker-Carter report completely missed addressing this key problem.



Over 70% of the 150 US based citizen election reform groups vehemently disagree with a conclusion that touchscreen or optical scan capturing and counting our votes will ever result in honest elections or that privatized vendor control will produce anything other than rigged elections. The philosophy and spirit of the Baker-Carter Commision is that the system while broken can be fixed. Contrarily, citizen opinion is that we need to wipe the slate clean and design a uniform, nationwide, hand counted paper ballots, citizen counted on election night (not later with audits) election system. We are not opposed to electronic capture of the vote, only electronic counting of the votes such as is currently the case with central tabulators that have been shown to malfunction or are be easily reprogrammed realtime on election night. Both Optiscans and Touchscreen technologies use electronic counting of our votes by using central tabulators that have been proven easy to hack by the famous ‘are we having fun yet?’ Harri Hursti exercise in Leon County Florida by Black Box Voting (www.blackboxvoting.org ). We also feel strongly that legislation is missing for proper audits to occur and that audits are after the fact and each day after the election, ballot integrity is compromised. Further, the costs of electronic capture do not outweigh their benefits. Therefore, CPB pushes for nationwide, standardized hand counted paper ballot systems, counted election night and permission to be videotaped by citizens with full citizen access to ballots free of cost anytime after the election.



Citizen groups tried to warn this panel for months and were ignored along with providing volumes of emails and CDs provided containing very real and powerful trench data from the 2004 election. This data was collected by citizens such as CPB Count Paper Ballots, the Houston Citizen Hearing, and earlier outlined in detail by the John Conyers report were largely ignored by the report. Citizen groups were not even references, nor the fact that every state has on average 3 citizen election reform groups so worried are citizens with the current state of elections. This raw data, cost thousands of dollars paid for by citizen groups and most of these 2004 election open records requests were never fully complied with in Georgia and Ohio. (CPB paid over $10k for open recs) (visit http://www.countpaperballots.com/cox-terrorist-response... for an example of how citizens cannot access electronic ballots). The results of the citizens audited data was ignored even though it was absolute proof that privatized elections do not work for America and only ensured that machine failures caused vendor specialists to run our elections instead of county election directors. The Baker-Carter Commission essentially advocates technology for the counting of the votes and even more technology for the auditing of the paper receipts. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just print a paper ballot and use free citizen labor to count these ballots?



Cynthia McKinney in a July 18th press conference proved that Diebold technicians ran the 2002 Georgia election and that an entire shipment of machines were stolen and never recovered putting all Diebold systems (optiscan and touchscreen) at a severe security risk. See http://www.countpaperballots.com/Cynthia-SpeakingTransc... More importantly, Baker-Carter call for “an auditable backup on paper this time, but we recognize the possibility of alternative technologies to audit those machines in the future.” The fallacy in this argument is that elections are about counting the votes weeks if not months after the election, we feel the goal is counting the votes on paper on election night, by hand with 3 or 4 humans counting and double counting every vote. The people power for this can come from jury duty like requirements as it is every citizen’s duty to participate in elections. The other fallacy of machines counting machine based paper is that a. the paper must be more than the current Diebold cash register receipt which fades with heat, and b. it guarantees privatized elections, that is US citizens depending on corporations and software that can be modified without trace and remotely on election night to help administer our elections. Paper once marked cannot be modified, software can always be modified without trace. That is why software cannot manage our elections.



This report continues to endorse election technology vendors play a key role in administering US elections mostly because several of the members on the Baker Carter Commission such as Ralph Munroe operates an election technology company. There was additional conflict of interest in this panel from the outset including James Baker who was Bush’s lawyer in the 2000 election challenge that went all the way to the Supreme court where judges essentially decided who would be our President. Huster asserts, “those of us in Georgia have known that we have unelected officials in our state house and senate, and that 132 years of democratic leadership was handed to GOP leaders in 2002 when Diebold entered the state and that many of our current officials were never elected by the ‘we the people’”. Finally, we do not feel that ballot integrity may be insured by prosecutors as the report insists ‘to improve ballot integrity we propose that federal, state and local prosecutors issue public reports on their investigations of election fraud.” State, local and federal prosecutors, partisan in nature failed the citizens of Ohio. Thomas Moyer, the Ohio State Republican supreme court judge, shut down the Greens/Libertarian recount efforts. Julia Bates, the Lucas county prosecutor, appointed by Bernadette Noe’s father, a powerful democrat in the state, and Noe the wife of embroiled “Coingate” scandal Republican Tom Noe, is still sitting comfortably in her $2M mansion in Florida while Julia Bates enables the FBI to confiscate and never bring to citizen light the information on her hard drive. This is not partisan issue as much as it is tied to ‘pay to play’ schemes that both Democrats and Republicans produce favors and nobid contracts in exchange for campaign donations. Citizen open records requests for Noe’s emails have been obstructed by John Borrell, the assistant county prosecutor as of September 19, 2005. Ohio, New Mexico, California and New Hampshire all brilliant examples that partisan prosecutors and partisan federal pressure from a single branch Republican government, which we now have, prevents any citizen redress at all, unless citizens want to risk being put in jail for making legal challenges to the election. (see www.erievoices.com for a complete listing of all the problems of the Lucas county prosecutors and how Internet bloggers were put in jail without given a phonecall by capturing and publishing Ohio corrupt politicians activities).



In no less than 10 citizen requests for judicial, FBI and federal investigation of the fraud in the Ohio election, there has not been a single investigation other than by John Conyers and his report has been largely ignored by the US House & Senate.



Citizen groups have long since agreed that while any form of electronic voting occurs on either touchscreen or optiscan machines it is the strong opinion of 70% of the 150 citizen based election reform community that we will have stolen elections. Visit Black Box Voting.org, visit ecotalk.org, visit caseohio.org, visit velvetrevolution.us if you want to see citizen groups opposing most forms of electronic voting as being impossible to secure from fraud. Read how in Ohio and other states, Diebold lobbyists wrote $10,000 checks to election directors such as Matt Damschroder of Franklin county to secure the purchase of their technology in that county. It’s clear that corporate motive being that of profit and citizen motives, that of fair and honest elections can never be the same. Also read that in most states, recount audits were illegally shutdown in Ohio by Republican judge Thomas Moyer and in New Mexico where it was ruled the recount was improperly administered requiring a new recount. There is little legislative or election law precedent supporting the mechanisms of audits. Besides it is not our civic duty to count ballots weeks after the election but rather to hand count the ballots on election night to secure a safe, fair and honest election. And most importantly, it is our duty to return elections to the citizens and remove them from their current control in the hands of corporations that are owned by strongly partisan owners.



Clearly the election commission did not want to hear from the citizens except for a few hours in Houston in which case it was mostly placating and not a substantive ongoing bi-directional dialogue. CPB personally sent Jimmy Carter a 48 page fax demonstrating evidence of election fraud in his own home state, Georgia and there was not even a single response to this fax. CPB also sent numerous emails to Monica Marvin of the American University’s Center for Democracy only to realize we were never called or emailed directly by anyone on the Baker-Carter commission about our proof of machine mistabulations in the Georgia 2004 election or the evidence we have that citizens have no county level redress with fixing election fraud.



The Baker-Carter report findings versus citizen findings is outlined below:



BAKER CARTER FINDING CITIZEN FINDINGS
Uniform Voter ID System Extensive (Many ID Choices) Voter ID System

Up To Date Registration Lists Election Day Registration

Enhance Ballot Integrity Hand Counted Paper Ballots

Voter Verified Paper Trail Citizen Verified Election Night Paper Ballot Counting

Impartial, Professional, Independent Citizen, Inexpensive, Videotaped, Nonpartisan



In short, citizen demands we shut down $3.6 billion dollar HAVA fund which is nothing more than a funnel to privatization of our elections and a guarantee that US elections will be fraudulent and concentrated in the hands of 2 companies ES&S and Diebold. To massively decrease the cost of elections by making citizen pollworkers similar to jury duty, removing this cost from the system and going back to paper ballots which is as much as 100 times cheaper than electronic voting per ballot. Remove all electronic voting for ‘counting’ of the votes, this includes Optiscan and Touchscreens and central tabulators. Enable election day citizen based counting of the elections in full view, with videotaping allowed on a ballot by ballot basis and make it free for citizens to get copies of all the ballots for citizen based recounts. We want extensive choices for Voter IDs not 4 IDs as proposed by Georgia but more like the previous 17 forms as was the prior case in Georgia. Remove all partisan aspects of the election officials from Secretary of State to Boards of Registration to Election directors. Give citizens direct redress to bring election fraud allegations including a nonpartisan legal body to bring fraud claims removing such legal procedures from a standard county level prosecutor which was appointed by a partisan official.



Finally, stop producing silly reports, the outcome of which do nothing more than encourage a broken system to operate, encourage privatized elections, but instead start giving genuine, innovative solutions for how to restore honest elections in America. At this point the future our children depends on this one outcome of fixing what is a terribly broken and getting privatized completely out of our election systems in America.



Count Paper Ballots (CPB) is a nationwide citizen group dedicated to proving that privatized elections lead to mistabulated & fraudulent vote counting. We advocate hand counted, citizen secured, paper ballots as the ballot of record, counted in full view of citizens, election day and are doing detailed audits of 2004 Election in GA and OH. Contact info: 678.362.9111, mailing , email [e-mail]



Black Box Voting (.ORG) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501c(3) organization. We are the official consumer protection group for elections, funded by citizen donations. Contact info: 425-793-1030; cell 206-335-7747 or 206-354-5723; Mailing address: 330 SW 43rd St. Suite K, Box 547, Renton WA 98055. E-mail

[e-mail]



Ecotalk. Voting, politics, the environment, health, and other stuff. Lynn is one of the nation's leading journalists on voting systems and democracy issues. Her articles are published on this website, in the alternative press, and in other online and print publications. Contact 215) 629-3553, email [e-mail] . www.ecotalk.org .



The Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections (C.A.S.E.) is a non-partisan organization of citizens from across Ohio who advocate for elections that are secure, reliable, and employ the nation’s best practices. We inform the public, the media, political leaders and government officials about problems in Ohio which we believe compromise our voting. Email [e-mail] . Website: www.caseohio.org .



Citizen Organizations Which Do Not Advocate Electronic COUNTING of the Votes:

ARIZONA
Arizona Citizens for Fair Elections

Arizona Volunteers Organized for Tomorrow’s Elections

ARKANSAS
National Coalition for Verified Voting:

CALIFORNIA
California Voter Foundation

California Democratic Party

Californians for Electoral Reform

S.A.V.E Democracy:

South Bay Phone Banking (Griffin)

Grassroots CA-OH-FL

COLORADO
Coloradoans for Voting Integrity

Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results (CAMBER)

Coloradoans For Voting Integrity

CONNECTICUT
True Vote Connecticut

Recount The Votes

FLORIDA
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition:

Florida Voting Activists

Gotta Audit

Recount Florida

Grassroots CA-OH-FL

GEORGIA
Count Paper Ballots

Count the Vote

Voter Choice Coalition

Defenders of Democracy

HAWAII
Safe Vote Hawaii:

ILLINOIS
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project:

IOWA
Democracy for Iowa

LOUISIANA
Louisiana Counts:

MARYLAND
TrueVote MD

Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland

MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace:

John Conyers Official Website

(Our Hero!)

John Conyers Blog

MINNESOTA
Citizens for Election Integrity - Minnesota



Fair Vote Minnesota:

MISSOURI
No Stolen Elections

NEW HAMPSHIRE
National Ballot Integrity Project: New Hampshire Task Force - Sharona Merel



NEW JERSEY
Coalition for Peace Action

New Jersey Citizen’s Coalition on the Implementation of HAVA:

Grassroots Action Supporting Progress

NEW MEXICO
Verified Voting New Mexico:

United Voters of New Mexico

Democracy for New Mexico

Florida League of Conservation Voters Education Fund

NEW YORK
New Yorkers for Verified Voting:

Where’s the Paper?

NORTH CAROLINA
NC Voter (Formerly: North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting):

OHIO
Ohio Honest Elections Campaign

(OUR HERO!)

Recount Ohio:

Ohio Vote Suppression News:

Citizen's Alliance for Secure Elections

Ohio Voters Reform

Campaign Ohio

Ohio Vigilance

Grassroots OH-CA-FL

OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma Grassroots Campaign:

OREGON
Oregon Voter Rights Coalition:

Oregon Clean Vote:

Action Speaks:

Oregon Voting

We Do Not Concede

PENNSYLVANIA
Mercer County Citizens for Better Government - Kathy McPherson -

Vote PA

TEXAS
Texas Safe Voting

UTAH
US Counts Votes

VERMONT
Vermonters for Voting Integrity

VIRGINIA
Virginians for Verified Voting: Eva Hudlicka -

WASHINGTON
Citizens for Voting Integrity - Washington:

Concerned Citizens for Democratic Integrity (King County): Holly Jacobson -

Voters Unite

WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia Citizens for HAVA: Hedda Hanning -

West Virginia Citizen Action Group

OTHER NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
51 Capital March

ACT

ACLU Florida

Audit The Vote

Backbone Campaign

Baker Carter Commission

Black Box Voting

(Bev Harris, an Electronic Voting Expert and author of Black Box Voting)

BradBlog

Bush Cheated ‘04

Citizens Act

Citizen Advocacy Center

Citizens for Ethics

Citizens for a Fair Vote Count (Vote Fraud)

Coalition Against Election Fraud

Coalition for Visible Ballots

Cobb for President

Code Pink

Common Cause

Computer Scientist for Social Responsibility (CPSR)

Constitution Project

Count Every Vote

Democracy for America / Dean for America

Demos

Election Line

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Election Online

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Election Science Institute (formerly VoteWatch)

Electronic Vote and Democracy

Electoral Integrity

ExitPollz

Fair Elections

Fair Vote

Help America Recount

Hunger for Democracy

Investigate the Vote

Juice for Justice

Just a Fly on the Wall (Clint Curtis Website)

League of Women Voters

Left.org

Mercury Coalition for Honest Elections

MoveOn

National Ballot Integrity Project

National Coalition for Verified Voting

National Committee for Voting Integrity

National Voting Rights Institute

No Confidence Resolution

No Mandate

Nov 2 Truth

Nov 3

Notable Software

Open Voting Consortium (OVC)

Perfect Voting System

People For the American Way

Project Vote Smart

SAVE Democracy

Solarbus Election Data

Solar Bus

Stolen Election 2004

The Dean People

This Time We're Watching

True Majority:

Truth in Voting

US Counts Votes

US Voting Integrity Project

Vote America

Velvet Revolution

Verified Voting

Voice 4 Change

Vote Scam

Vote Trust USA

VOTERGATE Resource Center:

VOTERR Voices for Open and Truthful Election Results & Reform

VoteWatch renamed to Election Science

Voters Unite

We Do Not Concede Coalition



Phyllis A. Huster | Executive Director | Count Paper Ballots | (w) 770.432.0199 | www.countpaperballots.com





********** Baker Carter Commission Final Report Email *************
Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform Stresses Urgency of Reform

Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker Release
Bi-Partisan Election Reform Report to Policymakers and the public



Washington , DC ( September 19, 2005) The final report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former president Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, was released to the public today. The 21-member Commission offers 87 recommendations to strengthen the country's electoral system and build confidence in the political process. The full report, as well as the executive summary and the list of recommendations, is available on the Commission Web site at: http:/ / www.american.edu/Carter-Baker . Please direct inquiries to the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University -- [e-mail] or [phone].


The 21-member private commission is organized by American University. Comprised of former Members of Congress, scholars and nonpartisan leaders, the group identified "five pillars" of election reform voter registration, voter identification, voting technology, increased access to voting and nonpartisan election administration and recommended ways to strengthen them.



-------------------------------------------------------------
Center for Democracy & Election Management
American University
3201 New Mexico Avenue, NW Suite 265
Washington, DC 20016-8026
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.american.edu/internationalaffairs/cdem /

[snot]

18. Autorank, if this isn't in a sep. post, it should be! Let me know

so I can nom & kick it!

[Algorem]

15. Not American enough

Cynthia Tucker
Universal Press Syndicate

09.19.05

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=1963...

Photo IDs lock some citizens out of voting booths

If you live in America's fortunate half -- the half whose household earnings are above the median of $44,000 or so a year -- you probably own a house, one or two cars and have health insurance. So it's hard to imagine that some Americans are too poor to have an automobile. And it's simply inconceivable that there are people so disconnected from the mainstream that they have no driver's license or similar ID to allow access to commercial airline flights, checking accounts or voting booths.

Earlier this year, when the GOP-dominated Georgia General Assembly passed a harsh law requiring all voters to have state-issued identification cards, many of its members dismissed criticism that they were unfairly restricting the franchise. They were only seeking to prevent fraud, they said. Besides, what reliable voter doesn't have a driver's license?

A few Atlanta Journal-Constitution letter writers expressed that sentiment, too.

"How does a person get along these days without a picture ID of some sort to cash checks, turn on utilities, drive a car or enroll their children in school?" said one. "I find it hard to believe that such a large number of people don't have any ID to take to the polls."...

[Wilms]

16. Other Edition:Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News MONDAY 9/19/05

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Wilms]

17. GA: Rights groups challenge photo ID law

Posted on Mon, Sep. 19, 2005

Rights groups challenge photo ID law

DICK PETTYS

Associated Press

ATLANTA - Voter and civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging Georgia's new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

The suit was filed the same day a commission co-chaired by former President Carter, a Georgia native, recommended a national requirement that voters show photo IDs.

Opponents of photo IDs for voters say such requirements would disenfranchise minorities and the poor; backers say they're a good way to combat voter fraud.

"Photographic identification as a requirement for voting is antidemocratic and prevents people from exercising their fundamental right to vote whether proposed by the General Assembly of the state of Georgia or the Carter-Baker commission," said Daniel Levitas of the American Civil Liberties Union's voting rights project.

-snip/more-

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/nation/12...

[Wilms]

19. kick n/t