Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday 11/18/05

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=401728&mesg_id=401728

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. PA: VOTING SYSTEMS TASK FORCE - PUBLIC MEETING

VOTING SYSTEMS TASK FORCE - PUBLIC MEETING: The Chester County Commissioners have established a task force to study voting machines as possible replacements for the current system. A public meeting will be held on Friday Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Government Services Center, Room 171, 601 Westtown Road, West Chester. Public comments will be heard at that time. If you plan to speak at the meeting, please notify the Commissioners' Office at 610-344-6100. Speakers will be limited to five minutes.

Link: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1678&dept_id=39393&newsid=15593402&PAG=461&rfi=9

[MelissaB]

2. Brad Blog: Democracy Breakin': Ohio's Electric Boogaloo

Democracy Breakin': Ohio's Electric Boogaloo

More on Ohio's Staggeringly Impossible '05 Results
The Corporate Media Continues to Not Care, But a Rightwing Blogger Finally Does...


The Corporate Mainstream Media may not give a damn about our democracy. Neither might the bulk of our politicians on both the Left and Right side of the aisle. But...

The Corporate Mainstream Media may not give a damn about our democracy. Neither might the bulk of our politicians on both the Left and Right side of the aisle. But clearly the citizens do, and even one rightwing blogger who has recently seen at least some of the light...

The response to our article on the "staggeringly impossible" results of last week's election in Ohio on several Election Reform initiatives which would have struck deep into the heart of far-right Republican Ohio Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has been notable to say the least.

We felt the report was notable enough that we decided to cross-post it both at BRAD BLOG and at HuffPo, where -- though it was never added to the front page as a "featured blog" -- it has already received an extraordinary 93 comments as of this posting.

To give you an idea of what that story documented, here are the numbers from just one of the four Election Reform initiatives which all ended up failing by numbers which defy reasonable explanation when compared to the historically accurate Columbus Dispatch poll, completed and published just days before the Election in the Buckeye state:



ISSUE 3 (Revise campaign contribution limits)
PRE-POLLING: 61% Yes, 25% No, 14% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 33% Yes, 66% No


More: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002030.htm

[MelissaB]

3. Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy

Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy

Friday, 18 November 2005, 11:05 am
Opinion: Bob Fitrakis

Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
November 16, 2005
From: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1574With nary a peep from the mainstream media, the US Supreme Court has stabbed yet another partisan knife into the American electoral system.

This time the court has let stand Florida's infamous 137-year-old ban on voting rights for ex-felons. It was this same Jim Crow ban that the GOP used to disenfranchise thousands of Floridians in 2000, providing the margin by which George W. Bush took the presidency. The ruling continues to take the vote from millions of African-Americans and non-violent offenders----and, in practice, others who have broken no laws at all. It is highly likely to strengthen the lock of the Republican party and its future candidates on the US presidency.

In Florida 2000, Republican Governor Jeb Bush used the ban as a pretext for disenfranchising tens of thousands of mostly black voters who committed no crime at all, but whose names allegedly resembled those who did. In the lead-up to his brother's test at the polls, Bush hired a Republican computer firm to compile a dubious list which Bush then used to deprive perhaps 120,000 Floridians, perhaps more, of their right to vote.

It has since been shown that thousands of those who lost their vote had never been convicted of anything. According to the Sentencing Project, the number of alleged Florida ex-felons effectively deprived of their right to vote in 2000 may have been as high as 600,000, roughly a thousand times as many as allegedly gave George W. Bush his margin of victory.


More:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0511/S00257.htm

[FogerRox]

4. Green Party--Media Ignore Mounting Evidence Election Manipulation

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, [email protected]
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders urged the mainstream media to cover evidence, including a report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that electronic voting machines can be manipulated without detection, along with other evidence of election fraud and obstruction.

"Why won't the media cover the GAO report?", asked Gwen Wages, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "Just as major newspapers and broadcast media ignored indications that intelligence of Iraqi WMDs and collusion between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda had been cooked before the U.S. invaded Iraq, they're now ignoring the destruction of American democracy."

After Election Day, 2004, Green presidential candidate David Cobb <http://www.votecobb.org> led efforts to investigate widespread reports of vote obstruction and manipulation by Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio and New Mexico, especially targeted at African American and young voters. Unlike 2000, the major U.S. media dismissed evidence compiled in 2004 by the Cobb campaign and revealed during hearings led by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and other Republican election officials used various means to fix the election's outcome.

More--

http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_11_16.shtml

[MelissaB]

5. AL: King Intensifies Investigation Into Possible Voter Fraud

King Intensifies Investigation Into Possible Voter Fraud

POSTED: 4:48 pm CST November 17, 2005
UPDATED: 5:11 pm CST November 17, 2005

State Attorney General Troy King is intensifying his investigation into alleged voter fraud in west Alabama.

Investigators are working to figure out whether absentee ballots were forged in a municipal election in Hale County.

King decided to increase the number of investigators in the area after a woman, subpoenaed by a special agent for a sample of her signature, filed a harassment complaint.

King said in a statement Thursday that the incident will not deter his investigation and his attempt to make sure only legal votes are cast in Alabama.


Link: http://www.nbc13.com/news/5349812/detail.html

[FogerRox]

6. West Virginia- Plea agreement likely in Logan voting case

November 17, 2005
Plea agreement likely in Logan voting case

By Tom Searls
Staff writer
Based on federal court filings, U.S. attorneys may be near landing one of the bigger fish they’ve been casting for in a Logan County election fraud investigation.

In a motion filed in federal court Tuesday, an attorney for Logan County Clerk Glen Dale “Hound Dog” Adkins requested a continuance in the case and indicated he was close to reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Trial had initially been set to begin today.

In requesting the continuance, attorney Dwane Tinsley wrote, “Counsel for the defendant represents to this court that plea negotiations are currently ongoing with the United States and reaching a plea agreement in this matter is likely.”

Adkins is charged with conspiracy to buy votes in elections from 1992 through 2002. The indictment alleges he shook down at least one aspiring politician for more than $4,000 that went to pay tuition for one of his relatives at Marshall University and the University of Charleston


more- http://wvgazette.com/section/Today/2005111631

[MelissaB]

7. GA: Bush DoJ Political Appointee Overruled Staff Recommended Rejection of

Bush DoJ Political Appointee Overruled Staff Recommended Rejection of GA's Voter Photo ID Law...

Measure Approved by Attorney General Even After 4 of 5 Staffers Wrote 51-Page Memo Advising Against Law
(Election-Related News Actually Makes WaPo's Front Page!)

A page one story in today's Washington Post reports that a 51-page memo obtained by the paper, shows Dept. of Justice staffers had rejected a controversial new Photo ID requirement law for voters in Georgia, but that their recommendations were overruled and the measure was approved anyway by the Bush appointed Attorney General.

Georgia's new law was recently rejected as unconstitutional by two Federal Courts who equated it to a "Jim Crow-era poll tax" after its approval by the DoJ despite the recommendation against it by 4 out of 5 staffers in the DoJ's Voting Rights Act division.

The law would have required all voters to present a Photo ID at the poll, available for $20 to those who did not have one. The measure, which, like all such measures currently being pushed around the country by Republicans, is alleged to be disproportionately disenfranchising to minority (read: Democratic-leaning) voters.

Despite a complete dearth of evidence to demonstrate that Photo ID requirements are useful in combatting the non-existent epidemic of "Voter Fraud" in America, Republican legislators in Georgia and other states are attempting to ramrod such measures through their state legislatures. Even the creators of the Georgia law were unable to cite a single example of fraud in the state which would have been held off by the new legislation.

Indeed, the self-described "non-partisan" GOP front-group calling itself the American Center for Voting Rights has been fervently attempting to perpetrate the hoax of a "Voter Fraud" epidemic on voters for at least the past six months. They've made the cause their number one plan in attempting to further disenfranchise millions of minority, elderly, poor and urban-dwelling voters, all of whom are far more likely to vote Democratic and not own drivers licenses.

More: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002032.htm

[FogerRox]

8. The American Prospect--TAP talks to Mark Crispin Miller

Fool Me Twice
We can't challenge the fraud in the 2004 election -- but we can keep it from happening again. TAP talks to Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again.
By Julia Gronnevet
Web Exclusive: 11.17.05

Print Friendly | Email Article


If you had to narrow everything down to a sentence, what would you say the book is about?

Well, it would be a long sentence! I would say that the book is a plea for electoral reform based on careful demonstration of the many ways in which the Bush Republicans stole the last presidential election. My aim is not to challenge the outcome, because there’s no constitutional way to do that. Rather, it is to get that scandal to reverberate, to provoke or inspire reform of our whole electoral system, which is a shambles.

Voter fraud existed yesterday and today. How do you see today’s tactics as different from ones used in the past?

I’m not arguing that election fraud is something new. As Andrew Gumbel demonstrates in Steal This Vote, we’ve had this problem from the beginning and both parties. The Democrats are hardly innocent. But there is something new that’s happened here. This theft of votes was unprecedented in scale. I also think that the use of touch screen voting machines to commit fraud is unprecedented. We don’t like to state the fact that we don’t live in a democracy. And I think we don’t like to say that we’ve made no progress. what I argue is that the era of Jim Crow is back, with far more sophisticated methods, and with a far larger constituency to disenfranchise. I think that the Bush Republicans are quite racist and they are obsessed with disenfranchising black people. The old racist animus lives in that faction of that party now. But I also think that it only starts with people of color, but it includes everyone in this country who goes against the fanatical mission of Bush Republicans.

What audience did you have in mind when you wrote this book? Who do you hope will read it?

more

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10627

[FogerRox]

9. Arizona-Mail-in democracy should be marked 'return to sender

Mail-in democracy should be marked 'return to sender'
Nov. 17, 2005 12:00 AM
A rich guy in Bullhead City has a well-meaning but wrong-headed idea to improve the way we elect politicians in Arizona. Businessman Rick Murphy told The Arizona Republic this week that he plans to bankroll an initiative that would establish an all by-mail voting system in the state.

The best thing about such a system, of course, is that it would allow a few of us voters the pleasure of marking the ballot envelope, "Return to sender."

Other than that it doesn't do a thing.
advertisement

Mail-in voting is fine. A lot of people already vote with absentee ballots. The mail-only system is presented as a way to have even more people participate in elections. Unfortunately, it doesn't deal with the reason why a lot of people don't vote in the first place.

"Since I'm not in politics I saw a problem and I wanted to fix it," Murphy said.

He's right. There is a problem with elections in Arizona. There's a problem with elections everywhere. But the trouble isn't with the way we vote. It's with the people we vote for.


more-
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1117montini17.html

[MelissaB]

10. Interview with Barbara Boxer with mention of challenge to counting Ohio's

electoral votes.

Senator Barbara Boxer

Aired: Thursday, November 17, 2005 11-12PM ET




The plot thickens for United States Senator Barbara Boxer. The California Democrat has written a novel about a fictional ultra-conservative Supreme Court nominee who must be stopped in Washington.

Truth is stranger than any fiction. Right now, a battle royale is being fought over the direction of the Supreme Court and future of abortion rights. Boxer stood her ground and voted "no" on the nomination of John Roberts as the Chief Justice.

Back in 2002, she stood her ground and voted "no" on the war in Iraq. Now, Republicans are up against it over the war, in-fighting, and scandals. Democrats are ready to rumble.

Hear a conversation with Senator Barbara Boxer about her new novel and the state of the Democratic Party.

Link: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2005/11/20051117_b_main.asp

[MelissaB]

11. Brad Blog: ‘Daily Voting News' For November 17, 2005

‘Daily Voting News' For November 17, 2005

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org The new Secretary of State in Colorado has told 10 counties to be prepared to conduct hand recounts of all of their paper...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The new Secretary of State in Colorado has told 10 counties to be prepared to conduct hand recounts of all of their paper ballots. An audit of the results from those counties ES&S optical-scan machines has caused some question as to whether the results are correct. Also, on the front of this morning’s Washington Post is an article that reports that not everyone in the Department of Justice was in agreement that Georgia’s voter ID law is constitutional. Political appointees overruled career employees....



NAtional: Media Ignore The GAO Report LINK

AZ: Mail-in democracy should be marked 'return to sender' LINK

CA: San Mateo County - Vice mayor’s lead shrinks to 11 votes LINK

CA: State official to seek full term LINK

CO: Hand count of ballot required in 10 counties (ES&S Optech Eagle III-P) LINK

CO: State asks 10 counties for manual vote recount LINK

CT: Write-In Recount Ordered in North Branford LINK

GA: Criticism of Voting Law Was Overruled. Justice Dept. Backed Georgia Measure Despite Fears of Discrimination LINK

GA: Bush DoJ Political Appointee Overruled Staff Recommended Rejection of GA's Voter Photo ID Law... LINK

IA: North Liberty candidate wants recount LINK

IL: Peoria - Board considers voting machine options LINK

IL: McDonough County - State must OK McDonough voting change LINK

IL: McDonough County - County board members look at revamped voting LINK

MA: Poll workers are guardians of democracy LINK

MN: Winona County - Voting machines work well LINK

MO: Cooper County - Election improvements could result in fewer polling locations LINK

NJ: Essex County - The vote is in for a new voting machine: Freeholders choose the Sequoia Advantage for Essex elections LINK

NJ: Parsippany - Court filing challenges Parsippany mayoral race (Sequoia Advantage) LINK

NJ: Holmdel - Berk will seek vote recount in Holmdel LINK

NY: Troy - GOP calls for revote in Troy LINK

NY: Opinion - New York State League of Women Voters Supports the Optical Scan Voting System LINK

NY: Asian Americans Face Barriers At Seven Local Polling Stations LINK

OH: Hamilton County - How your ballot dodged many a bullet LINK

OH: Montgomery County - Votes won't count in Carlisle precinct LINK

OH: Democracy Breakin': Ohio's Electric Boogaloo LINK

SC: Georgetown County - New deputy registrars to reach potential Georgetown voters LINK

TX: Fort Bend County - DOJ Push For Voting Rights Agreement Puzzles Officials LINK

TX: Dallas County - DA looks into reports of voting irregularities LINK

TX: Cherokee County - County soon to have new voting machines LINK

UT: Spanish Fork - Slim loser seeks recount LINK

WA: King County - Voter-challenge errors mount LINK

INternational: Montreal, Canada - Machines let us down LINK

Link: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002033.htm

Go to Brad Blog for the clickable links.

[MelissaB]

12. 20 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT VOTING IN THE USA

Thanks to Zinfandel here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5388685

[texpatriot2004]

13. Thanks for this thread. K & R nm

[Wilms]

14. NC: Diebold Attempts to Evade Election Transparency Laws

November 18, 2005

Diebold Attempts to Evade Election Transparency Laws

EFF Goes to Court to Force E-voting Company to Comply With Strict New North Carolina Law

Raleigh, North Carolina - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is going to court in North Carolina to prevent Diebold Election Systems, Inc. from evading North Carolina law.

In a last-minute filing, e-voting equipment maker Diebold asked a North Carolina court to exempt it from tough new election requirements designed to ensure transparency in the state's elections. Diebold obtained an extraordinarily broad order, allowing it to avoid placing its source code in escrow with the state and identifying programmers who contributed to the code.

On behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, EFF asked the court to force Diebold and every other North Carolina equipment vendor to comply with the law's requirements. A hearing on EFF's motion is set for Monday, November 28.

snip/more

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004171

Thanks to WillYourVoteBCounted

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401858

and Kelvin Mace in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5392032

[Algorem]

15. Radical cleric leads religious/political effort in battleground Ohio

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1132291490205190.xml&storylist=cleveland

11/18/2005, 12:01 a.m. ET
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — On one side of the street, a handful of liberal ministers pleaded for tolerance of gay rights and respect for Islam. On the other side, hundreds of people cheered as evangelist Rod Parsley called on the crowd to "lock and load" for "a Holy Ghost invasion."

The preacher's rally represented the newest wrinkle in politics in Ohio, the state that put President Bush back in the White House and is engulfed in a political scandal that has given hope to Democrats trying to break a 10-year-old GOP stranglehold on state offices.

The man behind it — head of a 12,000-member suburban church, vocal opponent of gay marriage and critic of Islam — is the most high-profile conservative pastor to date to enter the political arena in this battleground state.

The goal of what he calls Reformation Ohio: convert 1 million people to Christianity, help the poor and register 400,000 new voters...

[Wilms]

16. CA: Recertification Hearing on E-Voting Machines Changed at Last Minute

by Brad on 11/18/2005

California Sec. of State Disbands Voting Panel, Leans Toward Reversal of Previous Stance Against Diebold!

Recertification Hearing on E-Voting Machines Changed at Last Minute, Participants Not Notified

Election reform advocates had hoped Diebold touch-screen voting machine would be permanently decertified in the country's largest "voting market" (as Diebold likes to refer to it) after a massive test...

Election reform advocates had hoped Diebold touch-screen voting machine would be permanently decertified in the country's largest "voting market" (as Diebold likes to refer to it) after a massive test of their AccuVote DRE machines earlier this year revealed a 20% failure rate. But a more recent test, secretly held at Diebold Election System's McKinney Texas headquarters, apparently in violation of California state law, has resulted in what appears to be a last minute about-face from California's Republican Sec. of State, Bruce McPhereson. The latest news has now thrown everything now into doubt in the state concerning the future of electronic voting here.

snip/more

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002038.htm

Thanks to Amaryllis

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401903

Please see this link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401851