Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Thursday, March 1, 2007

[livvy]

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!



                 Welcome to the Thursday Open Thread

Although all members are welcome and encouraged to post to the Election Reform, Fraud, and Related News any day of the week, we thought it might be nice to have a day that was really open, and the responsibility of all interested parties to contribute their ideas, and any related articles, commentaries, political cartoons, etc. We thought we would try this idea out, and see if it works. If it does, and you like it, it could become a regular weekly thread. Additionally, if you have any thoughts or ideas to make it work better, let one of the regular daily posters know.

So, you are not only welcome and encouraged to participate, you are needed to make this Open Thread work.

Please:



1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. Google terms like “paper ballots”, “election reform”, or “campaign finance reform”. Don’t forget your local newspapers.

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 in other forums, and add the link to your post in the Open Thread.


                  

                         No more...        

Be the Media for open, transparent, and accurate elections! Find and make a post now!



Don’t forget to recommend for the Greatest Page. Now how often do you get to recommend your own posts?

[livvy]

1. Letter to the Editor

We should return to old paper ballots

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:00 AM CST

Why are simple paper ballots for our sacred voting rights an issue? It shouldn't be.

The loss of even one vote is tragic - the electronic voting system has created thousands, hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of votes cast to be disenfranchised.

Why do, we the people, allow ``private,'' for-profit companies to hold our electoral process hostage?

We should be very skeptical of systems requiring more technical literacy than most of us possess.

Until such a time that technology can assure any voter's vote was cast and tabulated correctly we should return to ``old'' simple paper ballots - and wait for the results versa having ``instant'' results that may not be accurate.

>more

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/03/01/opinion/letters/123898.txt

[livvy]

2. A technological dilemma: Internet Voting

A technological dilemma: Internet voting
SA Senate considering the institution of online ballots in hopes of increasing student turnout
Article by: Lee Blank
Campus Reporter


After voter turnout dropped from five percent to barely two percent from the 2005 to 2006 elections, the Student Association Senate is considering a resolution to support Internet voting, starting as early as this fall.

In an effort to increase student turnout, the SA Senate will vote on the resolution Sunday at its 6 p.m. meeting in the Holmes Student Center's Clara Sperling Sky Room.

However, a slew of problems occurred after the University of Wisconsin-Madison adopted its own Internet voting system in 1999. Blake Klinkner, an NIU political science graduate instructor and UWM alumnus, recalled controversy that surrounded Internet voting at his alma mater.

"Occasionally, a system loss of data would occur, and all the votes would 'magically' disappear or be erased," Klinkner said.

>more
http://www.northernstar.info/articles/?id=35628

[livvy]

3. Voting Machine Company Tries to Blackmail Dutch Government

Voting Machine Company Tries to Blackmail Dutch Government
by BaldEagle3
Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 01:54:31 PM PST

According to a Dutch grassroots group called "We don't trust voting computers", the head of the voting maching consortium Nedap/Groenendaal tried to blackmail the Dutch government in order to continue to cooperate in running its elections. Like many election offices in the US, the Dutch government needed the help of the voting machine company in order to hold an election.

The company owner even tried to force the Dutch government to buy its stock in order to cooperate, as documented by both the original Dutch email and its English translation.

>more

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/28/161117/088

Here's part of the original article and the link. I don't know what the little smilies are about, and I have no idea how to get rid of them, but they're not mine.

Voting systems company threatens Dutch state

“Buy my company now or you won’t have provincial elections”


February 28th, 2007

After invoking the Dutch Freedom of Information Act, the "We do not trust voting computers" foundation has received a number of unnerving documents from the Dutch Electoral Council. These documents describe the wheeling and dealing of Jan Groenendaal, whose company is responsible for all the software sold by the Nedap/Groenendaal consortium that sells the voting computers used in over 90% of Dutch municipalities. Groenendaal's company writes the software that tabulates the election results on both the local and the national level. The Dutch government depends on Groenendaal's company to the extent that it currently cannot hold elections without his help. The Electoral Council also concludes this in Image:Pdf_icon.png worried letters (Dutch) to the responsible minister that are part of the correspondence now made public.

The letters also show that Groenendaal was more or less blackmailing the Dutch government at the time of the previous parliamentary elections. On November 10th, he sends an Image:Pdf_icon.png e-mail (english translation) warning the ministry that his company will cease all activity if Rop Gonggrijp of the "We do not trust voting computers" foundation becomes a member of the independent commission that is investigating the future of the electoral process. This commission was instituted after earlier exposés by the foundation Gonggrijp founded. Despite this intervention, Groenendaal probably senses that the commission's report (due in October 2007) is likely to negatively impact the value of his company. Therefore, Groenendaal makes a very straightforward business proposal in the same e-mail, : "The ministry buys the shares of our company at a reasonable price, <...> and we will still cooperate during the next election (the Dutch 2007 provincial elections to be held March 7th).

On November 22nd (the day of the national elections) he writes Image:Pdf_icon.png a letter (Image:Pdf_icon.png english translation) which doesn't spell blackmail as explicitly to minister Nicolaï in which he indicates his need to sell quickly because he would like to “acutely” retire. But when that letter fails to elicit a fast response, Groenendaal writes an Image:Pdf_icon.png alarming e-mail (Dutch) to the Electoral Council in which he says: "We are heading towards a very dangerous situation". Right in the heat of election preparation, he writes: "I have ordered my employees to halt all activity until we have received an answer that is acceptable to us", and asks the secretary-director of the Electoral Council to intervene on his behalf. As far as we know, the Dutch government never filed criminal charges in relation to this attempted extortion.

The mails also show that Groenendaal was contemplating going to court to force the public prosecutor to arrest Rop Gonggrijp, founder of the "We do not trust voting computers" foundation. Groenendaal writes: "After all, his activities are destabilizing society and are as such comparable to terrorism. Preventive custody and a judicial investigation would have been very appropriate." The company also contemplated suing Gonggrijp as well as the TV-program EénVandaag for damages. In their October 4th broadcast, EénVandaag showed that Nedap voting computers could easily have their software exchanged and that large numbers of these computers were stored in unprotected locations. Groenendaal would also like to see the foundation's two legally bought voting computers confiscated.

>more
http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English/Groenendaal

Discussion and original post by kster:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468531

[livvy]

4. Ok...that's all from me.

Time for me to get ready to go to my other job...the one that feeds me and the dogs!
Take it away! The best thread ever is up to you.

[Kurovski]

5. Confused? Do you know someone who is only semi-aware of election fraud?

Here's an excellent site, "The 2004 Election Fraud Beginner’s Guide: A Broken Democracy Crash Course."

Pass it on...

www.ElectionTheft.net

[texpatriot2004]

6. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm

[L. Coyote]

7. E-voting on trial in Columbus, Ohio: The Squire Case

E-voting on trial in Columbus, Ohio: The Squire Case
by Victoria Parks & Paddy Shaffer - February 28, 2007
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_victoria_070228_e_voting_on_trial_in.htm

The Squire v. Geer case is more than just a mere election challenge lawsuit; the reliability of electronic voting was on trial last week in a small courtroom in Franklin County, Ohio. Voting rights activists see the issues before the court as going to the heart of democracy itself and whether or not election results obtained through the computerized voting machines can be trusted.

Former Franklin County Judge Carol Squire is contesting the victory of her opponent, Chris Geer in a challenge that has shed new light on the problems with e-voting machines.

Franklin County Board of Election's Chief Elections Officer Karen Cotton told the court that in an audit of the Squire/Geer race she was unable to balance the audit books, and could not state why. She said multiple staffers of both parties spent the previous Saturday, a full two months after the initial audit, conducting a hand recount of some books that were called into question in the Squire challenge. Cotton conceded that critics claim"our elections are all whacked up," referring to accusations about election irregularities. Percy Squire, representing his wife, Judge Squire, noted that the public count does not balance even after last Saturday's new audit.

In a December 2006, an independent audit conducted by voting rights activists trained in signature count audits, found that 86% of 206 Franklin County precincts would not balance with certified results. Most of these were off by significant margins when comparing poll book data and signatures to machine totals.

.......

[L. Coyote]

8. Opinion: How to Fix Our Democracy

by Mark Green Wed Feb 28, 12:30 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070228/cm_thenation/20070312green

The Nation -- Democracy can come undone. It's not something that's necessarily going to last forever once it's been established. --Sean Wilentz , The Rise of American Democracy
ADVERTISEMENT

Now that the Democrats' "100 hours agenda" has at least passed the House--and as Bush & Co. head toward retirement--the hard work of restoring our democracy must begin. For while the President frequently talks about exporting democracy, he has systematically undermined it here at home.

Not that this democracy was perfect before Bush had his way with it. If democracy means majority rule, minority rights and the rule of law, then the Constitution contained language that was far from democratic. Only men with property could vote. Blacks counted as three-fifths of a person. The Senate was not elected, and states of varying sizes had the same representation.

.......

[rumpel]

9. BBC: Estonia claims new e-voting first

Last Updated: Thursday, 1 March 2007, 10:35 GMT

Estonia has become the first country to use internet voting in parliamentary elections.

About 30,000 used e-voting - one in 30 registered voters, exceeding official expectations.

Estonia had tested internet voting nationwide in municipal voting in October 2005, when 10,000 people cast e-ballots.

To vote on the internet, electors have to use a computer, an electronic card reader and an identity card.

E-votes can only be cast during three days of advance voting for these elections. On election day itself people have to go to polling stations and fill in a paper ballot.

E-voting systems, in which people use online machines in polling stations or register to get an e-vote password, have been tried on a smaller scale in many European countries, including in some local elections in the UK and Ireland.

But there are worries about security.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6407269.stm

[rumpel]

10. Group Reaches Settlement With F.E.C. Over 2004 Campaign Advertising

Herald Tribune

KATE PHILLIPS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 — A major conservative group agreed to pay a $750,000 penalty as part of a settlement with the Federal Election Commission, which found that the group violated campaign finance laws by spending more than $30 million on advertisements and mailings supporting President Bush’s re-election.

The fine was the third largest in the agency’s 32-year-history. The settlement reflects a crackdown in the last several months on the political activities of so-called 527 groups — named after a section of the tax law — that surfaced in the 2004 election as a powerful force, raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated contributions through a loophole in the law.

“I think that the thing that is clear in all of these cases is that the agency is very serious about regulating both the solicitations and the advertisements that these groups do, to try to discern whether their purpose is to influence federal elections,” said Robert Lenhard, chairman of the F.E.C.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070301/ZNYT02/703010873

[rumpel]

11. BradBolog : Conyers to hold Election Reform & Irregularities hearings

The BRAD BLOG has learned the Judiciary Committee will also hold hearings next week on matters related to "Election Reform and Irregularities."

According to a Committee staffer, "subpoenas will be issued" tomorrow in the U.S. Attorney matter. If so, it would be the first time the Democrats have exercised their newly-gained subpoena power since wresting control of Congress from Republicans...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4204

[rumpel]

12. Feinstein on Public Financing - e-mail

February 23, 2007

Dear XXXX:

Thank you for writing to me in support of public financing
and campaign finance reform. I appreciate your letter and
welcome the opportunity to respond.

Like you, I believe that the relationship between campaign
contributors and lawmakers can be too easily abused. As Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, I plan to
hold hearings on campaign finance issues and look forward to a
vigorous debate on this subject. In addition to public financing, I
hope that Congress takes a serious look at other alternatives,
including cutting television advertisement rates for candidates
running for Federal office. Networks are allowed to broadcast on
public airwaves at no fee and I believe reducing advertisement
rates for candidates during prime time hours is not too much to ask
in return. Please know that I will keep your concerns in mind as
the Senate works towards improving campaign finance laws.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further
questions or comments, please contact my office in Washington,
D.C. at [phone]. Best regards.





Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator