Minority Undervote Rate Plummets...Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tues 2/27/07

[Melissa G]

REPORT: Minority Undervote Rate Plummets After New Mexico Switches to All Paper Ballots...
Thanks to Brad blog for the story and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x294166

Are We Here at DU surprised? Not even ONE, Little, Tiny Bit!!!

Toss DRE"S IN A BIG Trash Heap and THEN figure out how to recycle them. But get them out of our voting system NOW!

More details in post #1...

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, 2/27/07


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 new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" 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.




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[Melissa G]

1. REPORT: Minority Undervote Rate Plummets After New Mexico Switches to All Paper Ballots...

Thanks to BradBlog for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x294166
Original message
REPORT: Minority Undervote Rate Plummets After New Mexico Switches to All Paper Ballots...


REPORT: Undervote Rate Plummets 85% in New Mexico's Native American Precincts after Statewide Switch from Touch-Screen Voting to Paper Ballots
Comparison of Voting Data from 2004 to 2006 Shows Hispanic Undervote Plunged 69% as the 'Civil Rights' Case for DREs Continues to Fall Apart
ALSO: New Concerns Emerge About Racial Profiling vis a vis Touch-Screen Voting Systems...

"We were looking for any impact the change to paper ballots may have had on New Mexico’s historically high undervote rate. When we found the dramatic drop in Native American precincts, we were shocked," says New Mexico's Theron Horton. The Election Defense Alliance (EDA) activist added, "something was going on with the DREs in those precincts in 2004."

Something indeed.

Details now out from New Mexico reveal that undervote rates dropped precipitously in both Native American and Hispanic areas after the state moved from DRE's in 2004 to paper-based optical-scan systems in 2006. In Native American areas, undervote rates plummeted some 85%. In Hispanic communities, the rate dropped by 69% according to the precinct data reviewed by the Election Defense Alliance, VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.org.

Ellen Theisen, then Executive Director of VotersUnite.org, reviewed the original high undervote rates in the state after the 2004 elections, but hadn't broken it down to compare DRE vs. Op-Scan precincts. "When I heard of Theron’s work," Theisen says in today's press release, "I performed the comparison, and found that it’s the paper ballots that made the difference in the minority precincts.”

New Mexico banned the use of DREs across the state after their disastrous experience with Sequoia touch-screen voting machines during the 2004 Presidential Election. They now require a paper ballot for every vote cast statewide.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x294166

[Melissa G]

2. Second discussion by wilms in ER discussion group here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468444
more from article...
New Mexico banned the use of DREs across the state after their disastrous experience with Sequoia touch-screen voting machines during the 2004 Presidential Election. They now require a paper ballot for every vote cast statewide.

As he signed the bill which banned DREs into law in early 2006, New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson wrote a letter to Election Officials in all 50 states, warning that while "some believe that computer touch screen machines are the future of electoral systems...the technology simply fails to pass the test of reliability."

"One person, one vote is in jeopardy if we do not act boldly and immediately," Richardson implored, while decrying the failures of DREs in his state and in support of paper ballots. "When a vote is cast, a vote should be counted," he wrote...

[OnTheOtherHand]

13. one correction

The catastrophic undervotes in New Mexico in 2004 were on pushbutton DREs manufactured by Sequoia and by Danaher -- unlike the undervotes in Sarasota County in 2006, which were on touchscreen DREs. For anyone keeping score.

[Melissa G]

3. Insurance price-fixing suspected ... Diebold involved?

DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=299087&mesg_id=299087

Insurance price-fixing suspected
Attorney general seeks incriminating documents
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Attorney General Marc Dann is after documents that he thinks will show that the nation’s largest insurance brokerage fixed prices to cheat Ohio employers.

snip
To show why the documents are needed, Dann attached to his filing e-mails from 2003 that show Marsh asking for a "fake ‘B’ quote" and "an unattractive premium ... that won’t sell" to fix prices on insurance bids for at least two Ohio companies.

snip
Companies involved in price-fixing agree not to compete on price, instead often splitting up their clients and collecting larger profits. Their clients end up paying more, and the higher costs ultimately are passed on to employees or the general public.

snip
Under the subject line "Diebold — Primary Pricing," another 2003 e-mail from Marsh to Zurich says: "I need a fake ‘B’ quote on the lead. The lead is expiring for $1,050,000. … AIG will be keeping this lead. … Please quote higher than this or decline."

Mike Jacobsen, a spokesman for Diebold, said yesterday he couldn’t immediately comment on whether the company knew that it might be the victim of price-fixing. Diebold, based in Canton, makes ATMs and electronic-voting machines.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/02/27/20070227-A1-01.html

[Melissa G]

4. Fixes for accurate vote counts

Fixes for accurate vote counts
The Monitor's View
Tue Feb 27, 3:00 AM ET

Opinion

Ever since the 2000 presidential voting snafus in Florida, Congress has tried hard to ensure that each voter's vote is counted. But bills introduced this month target the least of the system's problems - verifying results from electronic voting machines.



Of more concern should be the work-a-day pieces of the electoral puzzle, such as ballot design, training for poll workers, and voter registration methods. These have the potential to disenfranchise more voters than balky machines.

The latest poster child for possible problems with digital voting involved a tight US House race last November in Florida's 13th Congressional district, which includes Sarasota County.

The GOP candidate eked out a 400-vote victory over the Democrat. In Sarasota County, touch-screen machines were at first judged to have failed in recording votes in the race from 13 percent of voters casting ballots in other races. Other counties in the district recorded only a 5 percent "undervote." Last Friday, the state gave its final report on the troubles: The machines worked as designed - it was the way on-screen ballots were displayed that most likely caused the "undercount."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070227/cm_csm/eballots

[Melissa G]

5. Pricey Presidential Primary a Priority

KCPW


Pricey Presidential Primary a Priority
Feb 27, 2007 by Julie Rose

(KCPW News) Utah's leaders have decided to spend three and-a-half million dollars from the state's surplus to hold an early primary election in the 2008 presidential race. A Western States Primary has been a key goal for Governor Jon Huntsman Junior and Senate President John Valentine says there's plenty of one-time money to make it happen:
"A Presidential Primary was one of the main items the Governor was interested in," says Valentine. "We already have $850,000 set aside, so we'll add the additional funds needed to come up with the $3.5 million."

Lawmakers had planned to pass a measure that would give political parties a small amount of funding to hold a "preference poll." The higher price tag will allow the state to use its new - and more costly - electronic voting machines for the election. Legislative leaders and the Governor believe participating in a primary on February 5th, 2008 with other Western states will boost Utah's visibility in national politics.

Utah has traditionally been known as a "fly-over" state for candidates en route to California or early caucus states like Iowa.

http://www.kcpw.org/article/3044

[Melissa G]

6. Call for new election audit rules in Illinois

Call for new election audit rules in Illinois
By Chuck Goudie
February 26, 2007 - Illinois' election reputation has been stained by decades of dishonesty. But now, ABC7 News has learned that an unusual move has begun to fend off fraud at polling places.

It was just last November that we saw a post-midnight march on to the Cook County building by defeated county board presidential candidate Tony Peraica, whose cries of chicanery at the polls were not unusual by Illinois election standards.
"Sad to say that Illinois doesn't have the greatest reputation for our elections," said Rep. Michael Boland, D-East Moline

That's why Moline state representative Mike Boland has introduced an amendment to the election code. The proposed law would require an election night audit in each precinct in Illinois instead of a central location as is now the case.

Under Boland's law, right after the polls close 10 percent of all paper ballots would be tallied and compared to 10percent of all votes stored in the electronic voting machines.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=investigative&id=5071680

[Melissa G]

7. Report blisters Montrose over election trouble

Report blisters Montrose over election trouble
State finds ‘flagrant violations,’ demands change immediately



By BEVERLY CORBELL The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

MONTROSE — The Colorado secretary of state Monday strongly criticized how Montrose County conducted the November election, alleging the clerk and recorder’s office had “flagrant violations” of security procedures and was “incredibly disorganized” in maintaining elections records.

A 21-page report states there was no evidence of fraud or criminal misconduct, or that the violations undermined the security or integrity of the election. But it indicates that the potential for fraud existed and recommends that changes to “staffing, security, training and document organization be addressed immediately.”

In its executive summary, the report cites several of the “numerous and substantial problems” with the way the election was run. Those problems included errors in programming voting machines, failing to conduct certain tests on the machines, failing to submit a security plan, failing to secure voting equipment and elections records and failing to account for signature cards from early voting and election day.

The report was particularly critical of the role of Montrose County election supervisor Debbie Rudy, in part because her job was too centralized.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/02/27/2_27_1a_Montrose_election.html

[Melissa G]

8. John Bonifaz makes the case for amending Holt's HR 811

John Bonifaz makes the case for amending Holt's HR 811

by Progressive Democrats of America


Following the PDA Issue Organizing Team (Clean, Fair and Transparent Elections) call on Feb. 20, 2007, PDA as part of a growing coalition, is working to improve Rep. Rush Holt's amendments to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) – HR 811. In this podcast, Tony Trupiano interviews John Bonifaz, constitutional lawyer and PDA advisory board member.

Bonifaz says HAVA has had disastrous effects on our elections because of the use of unreliable Direct Recording Electronic touch screen voting machines (DREs). Election protection advocates are moving to ban DREs and he encourages concerned citizens to contact their member of Congress and ask him/her to amend HR 811 to ban DREs.

PDA's supports Holt's effort to restore a level of accuracy lost with the passage of HAVA by amending this legislation. PDA board member Steve Cobble commented "PDA believes a reform bill must be able to show who won -- DREs don't allow that. The Holt bill starts from the premise of fixing DREs; we believe the problems are systemic, cannot be fixed, and should be banned. That's why we are working to amend HR 811."

Listen to the podcast: http://blog.pdamerica.org/?p=996

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_progress_070225_john_bonifaz_makes_t.htm

[Melissa G]

9. THE STORY OF THE VOTING VENDOR VULTURES AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM

by andi novick


THE STORY OF THE VOTING VENDOR VULTURES AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM


This is written for those of you who know something's rotten, but haven't made the plunge into this the greatest untold story in our history. I have only compiled a small part of the available information. This is not my work so much as my collecting some of the work of a few of the committed activists mentioned in here. There are many others who are not mentioned - all of whom have made a commitment to spend part of their time resisting what is essentially the take over of our democracy. I know there's a large number of people who know some of the pieces of this story of election theft, but don't quite know where to get an overview.



Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media (Re-Media) will be holding screenings of documentaries dealing with our elections and holding forums, bringing together experts to share additional information and answer people's questions. Hopefully this will give those of you who recognize the importance of this issue, a starting point to learn more. *


Overview


We are in the midst of what will hopefully be recalled as a very dark period in the history of the United States. Because we're in the middle of it and because the corporate press has ceased to function as the independent watchdog the Constitution intended, the majority of people don't know we are now forced to vote on machines which can readily steal and have stolen our votes.

Most Americans still believe that government is, or at least should be, accountable to the people and when you give them the information – of how all states (except NY, for the moment) have been forced to vote on these electronic voting machines which at best are shoddy, faulty, easily compromised and breakdown regularly, and at worst have been regularly hacked in the past few elections – they can't even take it in because it doesn't jive with their reality. Add to that the fact that there is no functional certification process for these machines, security is non existent, numerous studies have demonstrated the ease of rigging an election, plus the documented evidence of widespread computer "glitches", almost all of which favored Republicans – and you have what should be the biggest story since the birth of the nation (it has been suggested that the second biggest story may be the silence of the press)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_andi_nov_070225_a_return_to_sanity__96.htm

[Melissa G]

10. Horse Trade in U.S. Congress May Give Washington Its First Vote

Horse Trade in U.S. Congress May Give Washington Its First Vote

By Alison Fitzgerald

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Washington finally may get a say in what goes on inside the U.S. Capitol after two centuries as home to the building.

The District of Columbia would gain a member of Congress with full voting rights under legislation endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that may come to the floor for debate next month.

Lawmakers broke an impasse over whether to grant a vote in Congress to the heavily Democratic city by proposing an additional seat for reliably Republican Utah. The legislation would cap decades of efforts to give citizens of the U.S. capital a bigger voice in federal government decisions.

``Nearly everyone agrees there's something wrong when the world's greatest democracy doesn't have democracy for the capital,'' said Walter Smith, a former city attorney who led a failed attempt to get a vote in Congress a decade ago.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aq7VSxiMtfKc&refer=us

[Melissa G]

11. California SoS Finds No State Law to Prohibit Proposed Riverside County 'Hack Test' of Sequoia Touch

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 2/26/2007 4:33PM
EXCLUSIVE: California SoS Finds No State Law to Prohibit Proposed Riverside County 'Hack Test' of Sequoia Touch-Screen Machines!
But Secretary Bowen Says Board of Supes Proposed 'Ground Rules' for Test 'Overly Narrow,' 'Would Prove Little and Give Voters False Sense of Security'
Supervisor Stone's Hope for SoS Participation in '1000 to 1' Bet with Election Integrity Advocates under Unilateral, Unrealistic Restrictions Flatly Rejected by State's New Election Chief...
California's new Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, has flatly rejected a request from Riverside County, CA County Supervisor Jeff Stone to participate in a "hack test" challenge originally proposed to Election Integrity Advocates in response to their concerns about security and accuracy for the county's electronic touch-screen voting machines, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

In a letter sent to Stone last week obtained by The BRAD BLOG (posted in full at the end of this article), Secretary Bowen found that though there was no state law to prohibit such a test, her office would not participate, in part due to the narrow restrictions initially insisted upon by Supervisor Stone.

In her reply to a letter sent in early January to outgoing Secretary of State Bruce McPherson just days before he would leave office, Bowen wrote, "I am not aware of any state law that would prohibit the type of security test that you described in your letter." Unlike Bowen, the former SoS had been seen as far more favorable towards relaxed security issues for electronic voting.

As The BRAD BLOG originally reported last December, Stone had initially challenged local Election Integrity advocates "a thousand to one," during a public hearing, that a programmer would be unable to "manipulate" the county's voting system.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4196

[Melissa G]

12. EAC Research Finds Polling-Place ID Laws Reduce Minority Voter Turnout

EAC Research Finds Polling-Place ID Laws Reduce Minority Voter Turnout
By Project Vote, NALEO, AALDEF, LWV,
February 25, 2007
Advocates express deep concern over the report's findings



Testimony presented to the U. S. Election Assistance Commission, Washington, D.C., February 8, 2007



Advocates expressed deep concern today over new data that suggests Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans are less likely to vote as a result of increasingly restrictive voter identification (ID) requirements. These findings are the result of preliminary research presented to the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.


Researchers found that in the 2004 election, all voters, in states requiring voters to present documentation establishing their identity at the polls, were 2.7 percent less likely to vote than voters in states where no documentation was required. Latinos were 10 percent less likely to vote, Asian-Americans 8.5 percent less likely to vote and African Americans 5.7 percent less likely to vote.


"The study confirms that voter ID requirements keep more minority than white voters away from the polls," said Maxine Nelson, President of Project Vote, a national nonpartisan organization that supports voter registration and voter education programs "When you think about the many close races in the past two elections cycles, this documented disparity raises profound questions about the legitimacy of our democratic system."


"The biggest threat to the integrity of our electoral process is laws that prevent rather than encourage American citizens from casting a ballot," said Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, a national leadership organization dedicated to facilitating the full participation of Latinos in the American political process. "As the research suggests, restrictive voter identification laws are a potential threat to participatory democracy in the United States," concluded Vargas.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2286&Itemid=26

[Melissa G]

14. Feinstein Calls for Probe Into E-voting Machines

Feinstein Calls for Probe Into E-voting Machines
Senator asks GAO to look at potential for DRE malfunctions, election fraud
Marc L. Songini


February 26, 2007 (Computerworld) -- An influential U.S. senator has called on the federal government to find out why electronic voting machines have caused problems in some recent elections.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) earlier this month asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation of e-voting machines — especially those systems that fail to produce paper receipts for the ballots cast.

Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, called on the GAO to complete its investigation before the 2008 presidential election.


Sen. Dianne Feinstein The senator also asked the GAO to investigate claims by some e-voting critics that certain machines are prone to error, can be easily hacked and altered, and can be secretly reprogrammed to change the outcome of a race.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=13&articleId=284031&intsrc=hm_topic

[rumpel]

15. USA Today: States work on proposals to make voting easier

Updated 2/26/2007 9:38 PM ET

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Proposals designed to make voting easier and ballots more secure are beginning to advance in several states.

The proposals range from allowing voters to register until Election Day to expanding the use of absentee ballots and early in-person voting. Several states and Congress also are promoting paper trails for electronic voting machines.

The trend follows several years in which states passed tighter restrictions, such as requiring photo identification and proof of citizenship. Opponents of those restrictions, some of which were blocked by court action, are behind the push to bring more voters to the polls.

"There will be some legislatures that will be more receptive to those ideas," says Doug Chapin of Electionline.org, a non-partisan news and research organization.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-26-voting_x.htm

[rumpel]

16. CO: Report blisters Montrose over election trouble

The Daily Sentinel
State finds ‘flagrant violations,’ demands change immediately
By BEVERLY CORBELL The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

• Download a PDF of state's report on investigation of 2006 Montrose County election
• Download a PDF of supporting documents of the Montrose election investigation


MONTROSE — The Colorado secretary of state Monday strongly criticized how Montrose County conducted the November election, alleging the clerk and recorder’s office had “flagrant violations” of security procedures and was “incredibly disorganized” in maintaining elections records.

A 21-page report states there was no evidence of fraud or criminal misconduct, or that the violations undermined the security or integrity of the election. But it indicates that the potential for fraud existed and recommends that changes to “staffing, security, training and document organization be addressed immediately.”

In its executive summary, the report cites several of the “numerous and substantial problems” with the way the election was run. Those problems included errors in programming voting machines, failing to conduct certain tests on the machines, failing to submit a security plan, failing to secure voting equipment and elections records and failing to account for signature cards from early voting and election day.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/02/27/2_27_1a_Montrose_election.html

[livvy]

17. Evening K&R