Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 9/24/05

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 9/24/05

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=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=394542&mesg_id=394542

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. Beatty: Governor rules ‘by show, by spin, by cosmetics’

Beatty: Governor rules ‘by show, by spin, by cosmetics’
World News
By Staff Reporter

Actor Warren Beatty leveled a blistering political attack against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, accusing him of governing "by show, by spin, by cosmetics and photo ops" while imposing Bush administration policies on California.

Beatty made his remarks at a convention of the California Nurses Association, an organisation that has emerged in the past year as one of Schwarzenegger's most vociferous critics.

Beatty, a Democrat and long-time political activist who has been mentioned as a possible challenger to Schwarzenegger next year, did not announce his candidacy.

snip
"You have given this administration the massive enema it deserves, and shown California just what this governor, his administration and his policies are full of," he said.

http://www.irishnews.com/access/daily/current.asp?SID=502768

[Melissa G]

2. Republicans blast attorney general's response to voter-fraud

Republicans blast attorney general's response to voter-fraud allegations
Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/24/05
BY JONATHAN TAMARI
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

TRENTON — Republicans ripped into Attorney General Peter C. Harvey on Friday, saying his response to their allegations of widespread voter fraud is unacceptable.

"snip
Republicans charged last week that thousands of votes had been cast in 2004 under the names of dead people and that thousands more people appeared to have voted twice. Harvey ordered election officials in the state's 21 counties to review the claims. County officials maintain voter registration records.

snip
A spokesman for a voters' rights and voting reform organization said claims of fraud often stem from politics and should be closely examined.

"There's no question that fraud happens on either side. However, it's very much tied to politics," said Ryan O'Donnell, communications director for Maryland-based FairVote. "Any report that the GOP puts out should be put under the greatest scrutiny for that reason."

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050924/NEWS03/509240357/1007

[Melissa G]

3. Dems take aim at corruption

Dems take aim at corruption

Assembly candidates tout platform
Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/24/05
BY NINA RIZZO
FREEHOLD BUREAU


BELMAR — The two Democratic candidates for state Assembly in the 11th District unveiled Friday their 20-point plan to eradicate corruption on the local, county and state levels.

Matthew C. Doherty and Jim Reilly outlined a comprehensive plan that includes suspending indicted elected or appointed officials without pay; banning dual-office holding; publicly funding legislative campaigns; and imposing mandatory jail time for corruption convictions.

"What you've seen in Monmouth County is an extraordinary level of corruption," Doherty said. "We want to lay out a platform so the public knows we're serious."

He added that these reforms would pre-empt abuses, reduce the cost of elections and make politicians more accountable for the money injected into their campaign coffers.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050924/NEWS01/509240391/1004/NEWS03

[Melissa G]

4. Votes we can trust

http://www.dallasnews.com/

Votes we can trust

Some states need to get serious about reform


12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 24, 2005


Jane Eisner


Here's a little quiz for the American public – the half who votes, anyway:

Were you worried that your vote in the last election was counted incorrectly, especially if you used an electronic machine that issued no receipts?

If you were out of town on Election Day, was it a pain in the you-know-what to get an absentee ballot?

If you live in a state other than New Hampshire or Iowa, did you feel you had little or no say in whom your party picked to run for president?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-eisner_24edi.ART.State.Edition1.23072da3.html

[Melissa G]

5. Georgia’s New Poll Tax

Georgia’s New Poll Tax


The New Law Is a National Disgrace
09/23/05



In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the poll tax was unconstitutional.

Nearly 40 years later, Georgia is still charging people to vote, this time with a new voter identification law that requires many without driver’s licenses (a group that is disproportionately poor, Black and elderly) to pay $20 or more for a state ID card. Georgia went ahead with this even though there is not a single place in the entire city of Atlanta where the cards are sold.

The law is a national disgrace.

Until recently, Georgia, like most states, accepted many forms of identification at the polls, but, starting this month, that state is accepting only government-issued photo ID’s. Those with driver’s licenses are fine, but many without them have to buy a state ID card to vote, at a cost of $20 for a five-year card or $35 for a 10-year card. The cards are sold in 58 locations, in a state with 159 counties. It is outrageous that Atlanta does not have a single location. (Spokesmen for the state said Georgia plans to open one soon.) Even so, the burden is also great on people in rural parts of the state.

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/356/public/news662989.html

[Melissa G]

6. Politicos Want to Shield Net from Election Laws

Politicos Want to Shield Net from Election Laws
Submitted by editor on September 23, 2005 - 1:52pm.
By Anne Broache
Source: CNET

DU discussion here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394681

A controversial plan by the Federal Election Commission to regulate political blogging may be short-lived after all.


Members of Congress said Thursday that the freewheeling world of Internet politicking should continue to be immune from campaign finance laws, and indicated they may rewrite the law to halt the FEC's proposal.

The handful of politicians present at a hearing convened by the U.S. House of Representatives Administration Committee hailed the Internet's power in democratizing politics and breeding grassroots action.

They touted the Net's low cost of entry, as compared with media such as television, and threw their support behind a brief amendment to campaign finance law, offered in March in both houses of Congress, that would "exclude communications over the Internet from the definition of public communication."

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/1143

[Wilms]

11. Discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394681

[Melissa G]

7. Decatur may test a paper trail for voting

Decatur may test a paper trail for voting

Atlanta (AP)—Georgia's touch-screen voting machines would be equipped to produce a paper trail to let voters verify their votes under legislation proposed Tuesday by a Republican state senator hoping to become the state's top election official.

Sen. Bill Stephens, R-Canton, an announced candidate for Secretary of State in 2006, said he will pre-file legislation in November requiring the state to conduct a pilot test of paper printouts for voters in three counties in next year's election.

The three counties to be outfitted with printers in the 2006 test would be Cobb and Columbia, both rich in Republican votes, and Decatur, home of the current Secretary of State, Cathy Cox. Cox is a Democratic candidate who will oppose Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue next year.

snip

Georgia previously relied on a hodgepodge system that employed punch cards in some counties, optical scan machines in others and paper ballots in a few.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15269619&BRD=2068&PAG=461&dept_id=387472&rfi=6

[Melissa G]

8. Georgia's 'voter fraud' fraud

Georgia's 'voter fraud' fraud
A Times Editorial
Published September 24, 2005


Georgia's crackdown on voter fraud would be more credible if it actually pursued fraud. But the new requirement for photo IDs at the polls does nothing to address absentee ballots, where there is considerable evidence of abuse. Instead it burdens the poor and elderly and mostly black voters who have no drivers' licenses, which is why it is impossible to ignore the poisonous politics at play.

The bill was rushed through the Republican-controlled General Assembly this spring over the strenuous objections of African-American lawmakers, some of whom walked out in protest. It was signed into law by a Republican governor, Sonny Perdue, who called it merely a "common sense step to ensure voter integrity and sound elections."

The funny thing is, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat, reports no cases of documented identity fraud at the polls.

The law will have an undeniably disparate impact on voters. Among Georgians, blacks are nearly five times less likely than whites to have a driver's license. The only photo ID card deemed acceptable would be issued by the state, at a cost of $20, at only 58 different locations across a state with 159 counties (Perdue says the fee will be waived for those who sign an affidavit claiming poverty). If the state's intentions were pure, there would be many more sites to obtain a photo ID card - and the card would be free.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/24/Opinion/Georgia_s__voter_frau.shtml

[Melissa G]

9. Diebold's Tough Luck, VR's Promise, and a New Ad - Bradblog

Diebold's Tough Luck, VR's Promise, and a New Ad for America from the Velvet Revolution...
Debra LoGuercio, editor of the Winters Express in California, takes a look at our DIEB-THROAT stories in her latest column for McNaughton Newspapers. She closes with this graf: If someone...

Debra LoGuercio, editor of the Winters Express in California, takes a look at our DIEB-THROAT stories in her latest column for McNaughton Newspapers. She closes with this graf:



If someone can refute the Dieb-Throat story and www.bradblog.com posts, please do. Because if they're true, our votes and elections are meaningless. Which means the very foundation of American democracy is meaningless. Which means our country as we know it is dead.


We're glad LoGuercio has noticed, and that more and more such folks are beginning to take notice of what we've been yelling and screaming about since at least November 3, 2004 here at The BRAD BLOG

We also join her call for refutation of the points made by DIEB-THROAT in our stories covering just some of the information that the still-anonymous source has shared with us. Those stories, if you haven't caught them yet, are respectively here, here and here. You can reach LoGuercio at this email address, and you can reach us at this one should you have any information or evidence that in any way questions the validity of our reporting or the information we've presented so far from DIEB-THROAT.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001859.htm

[Wilms]

10. California must retain election transparency

09/24/2005 08:17:53 AM

California must retain election transparency

OUR elections are held to transfer political power between the voters and the government, not for the convenience of local election officials.
That's the belief of Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. Her comments came after members of the California Association and Clerks and Elections Officials wrote to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger claiming that computerized touch-screen voting has made the state's manual recount law obsolete.

The clerks don't want to resort to recounts, as they have for 40 years, if the accuracy of the vote comes into question.

State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, chairwoman of the Senate Elections and Apportionment Committee, said that doing away with protections and vote recounts that check accuracy is "an enormous mistake."

-snip/more-

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/oped/ci_3058434

[Wilms]

12. kick n/t