Election Reform, Fraud and Related News 01/14/07

[EFerrari]

Election Reform, Fraud and Related News 01/14/07

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

We the People for Peace and Justice are flying up on Thursday and doing Congress on Monday. We are staying at The Embassy Inn, 1627 16th St., NW [phone], [phone] January 27, 2007
From: 12:00 AM until 12:00 AM

Address
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Directions
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

More at link:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/organizations/ufpj/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=19938&t=



All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

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=203x407240

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

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


Please recommend for the greatest page. :hi:

[kster]

1. _-

:smoke: K&R

[EFerrari]

6. pssssst -kster -- did I get the date right?

:silly:

[Kurovski]

10. Hehehe...my computer tells me...yes!

For that Jan.27 date, 12:00 am (the 27th) to 12:00am on the 28th?:-)

Thanks for today's ERD!!

[EFerrari]

12. Now you're just messing with me. :=)

[Kurovski]

15. WHAAA!??? I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

Really, thank you for the ERD.:evilgrin:

[kster]

19. I know

nothing.

[EFerrari]

2. CA Editorial: Surely there must be a way to speed up election results

Surely there must be a way to speed up election results
By Jim Boren / The Fresno Bee
01/14/07 06:41:23



It's time to rethink the way we conduct elections in California. I'm all for making voting more convenient, but pushing more and more people to cast absentee ballots has a serious downside that could one day make some people question election results.

The recent long count in Fresno County's tight sheriff's race — it took 26 days to formally declare a winner — could become typical because absentee ballots take so long to tabulate. More than half of Fresno County's voters now cast absentee ballots, and election officials expect that number to grow with every election.

That means the vote count will get slower and slower because absentee ballots require special handling and verification. It's easy to vote by absentee ballot. You can do it in your pajamas at the kitchen table and you can drop the ballot in the mail the next day on the way to work.

So what's the problem? My main concern is election night will become election month. We're headed in the wrong direction and no one seems to be questioning the system. A speedy vote count shouldn't be too much to ask of our elections officials.


http://www.fresnobee.com/182/story/24091.html

[EFerrari]

3. Steven Hill: Catching on to instant runoff voting

Steven Hill: Catching on to instant runoff voting
By Steven Hill -

Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, January 14, 2007
Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E4

Political reforms such as redistricting reform and campaign finance reform have foundered at the ballot box in recent years, rejected by voters in several states. But another political reform, instant runoff voting, has quietly racked up impressive victories.

Instant runoff voting (IRV), which allows voters to rank their candidates 1, 2, 3, made great strides during the Nov. 7 elections when voters in four jurisdictions overwhelmingly approved ballot measures. In California, voters in Oakland approved the idea with a landslide 69 percent of the vote, as did 56 percent of voters in Davis. In Minneapolis, a landslide 65 percent of voters passed an IRV ballot measure, as did 53 percent of voters in Pierce County, Wash.

What was interesting about the victories was that they happened in four very different locations. Oakland is a diverse, working-class city; Minneapolis is a Midwestern values city; Pierce County is a mix of rural/suburban/urban areas with many independent-minded voters; and Davis is a small university town.

Yet in each locality, IRV provided a unique solution to problems with representative government.

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/107202.html

[EFerrari]

4. MD: Two-Thirds of Precincts Were Short on Machines

Two-Thirds of Precincts Were Short on Machines

By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 13, 2007; Page B05

Only one-third of voting precincts in Prince George's County were provided with as many voting machines as required by law on Election Day, a failure that might have caused long lines that frustrated many residents, a state analysis has concluded.

In a letter sent to the county's Board of Elections last month, State Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone wrote that the county provided too few voting machines at 133 of the county's 206 precincts, and she asked for an explanation. State law requires one machine for every 200 registered voters.

Long lines were common Nov. 7 at many Prince George's polls, where some voters waited until midnight.

One voting station, at the University of Maryland, was supposed to have 12 machines but was provided with four. On Election Day, students did not finish voting until 2 1/2 hours after the polls closed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202108.html

[EFerrari]

5. CA: Hacking debate gains traction

Hacking debate gains traction

Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
January 14, 2007 January 14, 2007
Could a computer programmer hack into Riverside County voting machines in 15 minutes without any tools?

Supervisor Jeff Stone bets not.

Frustrated with confrontations from Save R Vote, a Temecula-area community watchdog group created to oversee Riverside County elections, Stone challenged the group on Dec. 5 to hack into the county's voting machines, laying odds it couldn't be done.

But that was before the group hired Finnish computer programmer Harri Hursti - who successfully tampered with a Diebold voting machine for the HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy" - to attempt the hack.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/NEWS0301/701140319/1006

[EFerrari]

7. MD: Election paper trail bill on House agenda

Election paper trail bill on House agenda

By JEFF HORSEMAN, Staff Writer

With more than a year before voters choose the next president, a state delegate yesterday introduced a bill that would track votes with a paper trail to ensure the accuracy of future elections.

But the paper receipt system could cost $50 million, and the county elections chief said it isn't necessary.

"I don't see a need for it," Barbara Fisher said. "I have confidence in the system we have."

The integrity and accuracy of state elections has been an issue ever since the state switched to touch-screen voting machines several years ago. Critics say the machines are susceptible to fraud and that a paper trail provides an extra layer of protection to the electoral process.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/01_13-32/GOV

[EFerrari]

8. WY: Sheridan vote review now opened

Sheridan vote review now opened

By The Associated Press
SHERIDAN - Sheridan County officials now say a planned Jan. 22 review of the ballots cast in the county in Wyoming's U.S. House race will be open to the media.

Hardy Tate, of Sheridan, who is one of three people who requested the ballot review, told the Sheridan Press that the county would close the review to the media.

But County Attorney Matt Redle told the newspaper Friday that he received a request from the Associated Press that the ballot review be open. Redle said the Sheridan Press, the AP and other news outlets may attend.

Redle said the county nonetheless wants to limit the number of reporters at the ballot review because the possibility of confusion could increase with the number of people in the courthouse.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/14/news/wyoming/30-vote.txt

[EFerrari]

9. IN: Spreading the News (civil rights)

Spreading the news
Tribune used wire stories to introduce readers to civil rights.


HOWARD DUKES and JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO
Tribune Staff Writers

SOUTH BEND -- This headline appeared in The Tribune on Dec. 7, 1955:

"Negro Is Fined For Violating Segregation."

That's how area readers first learned about a 42-year-old Montgomery, Ala., seamstress arrested two days earlier for refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white rider.

The four-paragraph news brief, which ran on the bottom right-hand column of the front page, ended with a sentence that read as if it was included as an afterthought: "Other Negroes boycotted city busses today in protest against the woman's arrest."

That woman was Rosa Parks, and her arrest and the yearlong boycott it ignited ended bus segregation in Montgomery. It also jump-started the national civil rights movement and introduced readers to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070114/News01/701140364/-1/NEWS01

[Kurovski]

16. Sometimes this is how it happens:

"Papers in the North started taking a serious look at conditions in the North only after the riots occurred."

[EFerrari]

20. Yes, sometimes this is how it happens.

:hug:

[EFerrari]

11. FL: White House snub? It cuts both ways

White House snub? It cuts both ways

By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published January 14, 2007


Gov. Charlie Crist confirmed last week that it's still pretty icy between himself and the White House following his snub of the president at an election eve rally in Pensacola.

Asked whether he had been briefed by the Defense Department on President Bush's planned troop surge in Iraq -- since it will affect National Guard troops in Florida - Crist spoke very slowly for emphasis: "Not since Pensacola. No."

(snip)

The former elections supervisor also said she's thrilled to see her former Pasco colleague Kurt Browning get tapped as secretary of state, that paper trails for electronic voting machines are inevitable, and that it appeared to her a flawed ballot design was the main factor in more than 18,000 Sarasota County voters failing to vote in a high-profile congressional election.

"One thing we've got to get really clear here in the state is the standardization of ballot design - and I hope Kurt pursues that - and peer review of ballots," Iorio said.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/14/State/White_House_snub_It_c.shtml

[EFerrari]

13. WV: A Snapshot of Ney’s Career

A Snapshot of Ney’s Career

By JOSELYN KING Political Writer

Bob Ney

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — When Belmont County Director of Elections William Shubat recently hung photos in his new office in St. Clairsville, among them was one of former congressman Bob Ney.

The picture hangs alongside photographs of some other lawmakers— U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., as are Ney and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., with their respective staffs.

Ney and Hoyer, as chairman and ranking member of the House Administration Committee in 2002, respectively, crafted the Help America Vote Act. A copy of the document also hangs on Shubat’s office wall.

On Friday, Jan. 19, Ney is set to be sentenced on charges pertaining to corruption and his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Prosecutors are recommending that he serve at least 27 months in a federal prison, though he could be sentenced to up to 10 years.

http://www.theintelligencer.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=14926

[EFerrari]

14. Out to Lunch (but you knew that). I'll be back.

:kick:

[EFerrari]

17. OpEdNews: U.S. Protesters' Sandy Impeachment Message

U.S. Protesters' Sandy Impeachment Message
Mikael Rudolph



"Have you ever heard of Google Earth?" a 10-year-old girl asked her father one afternoon late last year. Within minutes, married author and 55-year-old cab driver of 21 years Brad Newsham had realized how he could give the world a global perspective on impeachment.

This past Saturday morning, Jan. 6, the girl and her Dad, along with over a thousand of their fellow Californians, made a pilgrimage to Ocean Beach, which faces west just around the head of the bay from the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. They then laid, sat, stood, huddled, and cuddled into the shape of giant letters spelling out the word that recently was so famously declared "off the table" by their very own Representative in Washington D.C., new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

In addition to the press photographers and television news crews on the ground, both video and still cameras captured the political distress call from a helicopter, the rental of which Newsham paid for out of his modest personal earnings.

"I hope that this catalyzes the impeachment movement the same way the first photos of Earth taken from outer space catalyzed the environmental and humanist movements" said Newsham "and something seems to be working. I just looked, and one of our photos is already the 8th most-emailed photo on Yahoo. And this is just the beginning."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mikael_r_070113_u_s__protesters__san.htm

[EFerrari]

18. CT: National Model for Election Security - 20% manual Audits

CT: National Model for Election Security - 20% manual Audits

by Kathy Dopp

20% is sufficient to ensure integrity of outcomes in almost all
federal elections for most election systems, although it would fall
short of ensuring election integrity in small close local races. CT's
new procedure is a vast improvement in the sufficiency of manual
audits. This is a terrific step forward by Susan Bysiewicz who also
had the smarts to select optical scan voting systems (no DREs) for CT!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_kathy_do_070114_ct_3a_national_model_f.htm